Opening

It started with a prison wagon in Silverport and a woman who winked on her way out. Vath hadn't meant to get involved. He has been involved ever since.

Sewers under the Market District. A letter signed with a single initial. A coast where things come up out of the water and leave nothing behind when they die. A church in Serenholme that was not what it showed the town, and a town that watched and didn't help. Some of the people who walked into Serenholme with him did not walk out.

The ground shook once, for a full minute, and every bird left. Nobody has explained it.

Under Mistyvale there are stairs older than the land they're cut into. A god of death keeps his statue down there with his arms open. North of East Point, three caskets waited under a dig that rats were dying to finish. Something wants what is buried in Etheryn. Vath doesn't know what yet.

He travels with a priest of the dead, a gentle swordsman, a wrestler, and a Reaver nobody here can explain. The road runs on toward Vogler.

There's a pouch of dried flowers in his coat. He'll learn their name eventually.