Book One – Chapter 18

“The practice of sevarran branding is kept even from lesser selder. Werisian sevrants are bestowed for many reasons. Pathfinder elders may grant them. Rulers also. In theory, any selder may exchange sevrants with another. They are inscribed through carving and rune-etching, and through the burning of substances into the flesh. The selder who receive them do not suffer from the branding. Not once the strain has passed, and the pain has ebbed. Unless, of course, the branding is interrupted.”

The shaman’s hand rose. She drew out the darkened needle and turned it inward, toward herself.

The ice surged through Yu’s limbs, rushing up from his legs to his chest. It pushed and tore inwards, until it bit into his throat. Yu could not speak and he could not swallow. His neck went rigid. He could not look away. The seam across her collarbone rippled and the flesh trembled as it took the needle. When the shaman drew it free, the shaft was hollow again, void of all substance. She slid it back into the selder’s back.

“When born, Pathfinder selder gain their first sevrant. The Almara. You see it here.” She traced the faint circular sigil on the unconscious body. The elegance of her gesture was filled with reverence, but there was no tenderness in it. “It is the first of them, for some the only one. A mountain-binding. A ritual sealed in the Albweiss caves, to mark them as heirs to their ancestor’s passages.”

The last of her scales fell back over the maw. The stinging in Yu’s ears reached a fever pitch; sharp, insistent, absolute.

“The Almara allows them to be seen by the spirits and beasts of the mountain. To remain untouched, even by the most ravenous. But it is also an obligation to the mountain itself. Those who carry it must devote their lives to the mountain’s will, to ensure they do not lose their way, nor lead others astray. Pathfinders guide. Not merely across stone and ice, as the ignorant believe.”

Her scales rippled again, much slower than before. The soft rustle of it seemed to steal the sting from Yu’s ears. With each rise and fall of her chest, the soothing whisper swelled. His eyes filled with the rhythm of it. In its ebb and flow, the horror was hypnotic.