Summary

In Prologue, the third-person narrator set the scene at the Waystone Inn. There was a layered silence in the inn due to the lack of commotion, the careful motions of a dark-haired man, and an elusive third silence. A red-haired man laid awake in his bed. He was the owner of the inn and the third silence. He felt a great weight on him as he waited to die.

In Chapter 1, Bast, a worker at Waystone Inn, looked around the bar that was empty of people. He began chanting. He greeted the red-haired innkeeper called Kote. Kote recognized Bast for incapacitating a dangerous creature the previous night. Kote went through his normal routine for taking care of the inn. He spoke a frequent patron of the inn, who commented that Kote acted old but was actually quite young. Later, Kote noted the...