Midnight Tides/Chapter 18

Epigraph

Expectancy stands alone And crowds the vast emptiness This locked chest of a chamber With its false floor the illusory Dais on which, four-legged carpentry of stretcher- bearers, crouches the throne Of tomorrow's glory when The hunters come down From the cut-wood gloom Stung hard to pursuit The shadows of potentates And pretenders but he holds Fast, the privileged indifference That is fruitless patience Expectancy stands ever Alone before this eternally Empty, so very empty throne. Hold of the Empty Throne Kerrulict

Hiroth village

After their consecrated grounds were destroyed, one of the Nerek dreams--Fearful dreams--but the tribe still sends to find Hull Beddict.

Near High Fort

Fear Sengar speaks with Trull, scolding him for expressing his doubts. Trull says he serves only fear and nobody else. They speak about Rhulad. Trull wants to know who is doing this to him. Trull agrees to only voice his doubts to Fear.

High Fort

Queen Janall Diskanar, Prince Quillas, and Moroch Nevath are at High Fort. They speak of their cadres and defensive measures, the Queen is confident in the Letherii.

Trull waits with the allied forces and their summoned Kenyll'rah demons. Soon both the Letherii and K'risnan brandish their sorceries and the Battle of High Fort begins.

On the battlefield, Moroch loses the Queen and Prince. Moroch watches Trull kill a mage, looks for a horse then falls down. He watches sorcery slaughtering thousands.

The Letherii are fleeing back, Trull calls for a healer and goes towards Fear.

Moroch watches the Jheck ravaging the wounded. He spots the prince being taken prisoner. He hears that the first has been surrendered and the queen is captured as well.  He will head south with the Edur.

Trull finds a wounded demon and they speak about its homeland. They go off to find a healer, but find Fear and the K'risnan. Trull asks an Arapay woman to heal the demon, but she refuses. Fear commands him to leave the demon. Trull apologises and leaves to find another healer, eventually securing the aid of Hanradi Khalag's Elder Sister.

The demon's name is Lilac, and it will be Trull's companion. They go to find Fear, who is with the Letherii royalty. Rhulad wants the prisoners himself, and Trull is allowed to stay with Lilac.

Lilac and Trull go to the river and they speak of the demon's land. They speak of the forces of the Nerek and the Letherii people. They contrast the Edur and the Letherii. Fear finds Trull and they spar, and Fear threatens Trull with death for his challenges to the empire. Fear leaves, and Trull weeps.