The Thief's Canticle

On the third morning, Ren scouts from a ridge and discovers a camp of five survivors: Harsk the craftsman, Nella the ex-soldier, Fossick the thief, Brother Callum the priest, and the mysterious Moth.

Ren and Ludo travel with the refugee column as Ludo health rapidly declines. Ludo entrusts Ren with his research journal containing notes that boneglass may be alive and vulnerable to silver nitrate.

Ren grieves Tik outside the wall while the surviving guild members scatter in separate directions. Pell departs south, Dara and Joss head east toward family. Ren and Ludo, the last two guild members, join the refugee column heading north.

Ren picks a maintenance hatch lock in the outer wall as demons close in, allowing the group to escape Harrowfeld. Tik sacrifices himself holding the hatch open against the demons, ensuring the survivors make it through. Of eight who approached the wall, only four emerge alive.

Twelve survivors emerge to ruined Coppergate Lane. Maren insists on returning to the guild vault to secure something dangerous that cannot be found, splitting the group over Tik's objection. Taking three guild members, she gives Tik twenty minutes.

In the ancient pre-guild cisterns, a street collapse above sends rubble crashing through the ceiling. Sera pushes Ren clear, pinning herself under a massive cobblestone slab. A hatched creature enters through the gap; Ren fights it, Tik kills it. Sera reveals internal injuries and cannot be freed.

The guild navigates boneglass-infested tunnels beneath Harrowfeld. Route Three is compromised; Ren dissolves a crystallized lock with acid to open a blocked gate. Creatures drop from the ceiling at a junction, killing Kael and Bryn. Ludo uses his chemical compounds twice to save the group.

Harrowfeld's boneglass district erupts at dawn as something vast awakens beneath the city. The guild evacuates under Maren's command, witnessing the first crystalline-bodied demons emerging from the shattered streets.

The guild celebrates a successful fence deal with wine, stories, and Ludo's experimental light compound. Tik reveals the origin of his scars and his philosophy of patient revenge.