Summary

Chapter 1, “In Which a Story Is Told” is related from the first-person point of view of an unknown narrator who was forced to give up her son in the past, and she is still sad about it. The woman tells her child that there is a Witch in the woods that no one has seen for ages and to hurry up because the Day of Sacrifice waits for no one.

In Chapter 2, “In Which an Unfortunate Woman Goes Quite Mad,” a third-person narrator first focuses on the Grand Elder Gherland as he prepares for the nearing procession of the Day of Sacrifice. The narrator gives a brief description of the city-state which is called the Protectorate. The Protectorate is owned and operated by a group of rich and fortunate people called Elders, and the Elders are led by a man named Grand Elder...