Bookshops & Bonedust

The story opens in the bastion oaks, where the young orc mercenary Viv charges ahead of Rackam's Ravens against the undead army of the necromancer Varine the Pale. Reckless and eager to prove herself, Viv is impaled through the thigh by a wight's pike and saved at the last moment by Rackam, the dwarven captain. Varine, it turns out, was never present, and the company must pursue her north. Rackam orders the wounded Viv to recover in the nearby sea town of Murk, where she may rejoin them—or quietly leave the mercenary life behind.

Viv awakens at The Perch, an inn run by Brand, a tattooed sea-fey. Restless, she hobbles through Murk on a crutch, where she meets the surly orc handyman Pitts and runs afoul of Iridia, the formidable tapenti head Gatewarden, who threatens to jail her if she causes trouble. Wandering into Thistleburr Booksellers, Viv encounters Fern, a tiny, foul-mouthed rattkin proprietor, and her gryphet Potroast. On credit, Fern presses her into buying Ten Links in the Chain, a novel Viv unexpectedly devours during a stormy night.

Her recovery becomes intertwined with the bookshop. Fern is on the verge of bankruptcy, the shop in disrepair. Viv quietly repairs the rotting boardwalk outside, buys comfortable chairs to make a reading nook, and persuades Fern to declutter and reimagine her store. Their friendship deepens through book recommendations and Fern's clever wagers, including the romance Sea of Passion. Viv also befriends Maylee, a dwarven baker and former mercenary at Sea-Song Bakery, whose flirtation grows into a tender, knowingly temporary romance. The cocky gnome Gallina, lurking at The Perch hoping to join Rackam's Ravens, attaches herself to Viv as well.

The peace cracks when Viv spots a sinister gray-cloaked stranger watching her, then later finds him inside Thistleburr striking Potroast. Confronting him on the boardwalk, Viv fights him with her staff; he produces a magestone and reopens her wound before Gallina arrives to subdue him. Iridia jails all three. While Viv and Gallina share a cell and a copy of Sea of Passion, the gray man—later named Balthus—escapes overnight. Viv reveals to Iridia that he carries the scent of Varine's wights, suggesting the necromancer's reach extends to Murk.

Days later, Balthus turns up dead behind a storage building, branded with Varine's horned-diamond sigil. Viv hides his satchel from Iridia. Inside it, Fern identifies bones and bonedust as the components of osseoscription—an enchantment that animates a small skeletal homunculus. Sprinkling the dust, they wake Satchel, a sad-voiced bone homunculus bound to serve. Satchel reveals he was stolen from Varine by Balthus and freed him from his cell. He is bound by fear from speaking against his Lady, but admits he wishes to be free.

Fern soon discovers a black tome Balthus hid in the shop—Varine's grimoire, whose pages contain an "underspace" of stored possessions. Reaching inside, Viv withdraws a perfectly balanced greatsword, triggering an alarm that alerts Varine. Unwilling to give up the blade, which she dreams reveals is named Blackblood, Viv convinces Iridia to lock the dangerous book in the Gatewarden vault. As Varine's presence draws nearer—evidenced by a scorched sigil on the bluff and dreams in which the necromancer speaks to Viv—Satchel finally agrees to help plan her death.

While the threat builds, Viv helps Fern revive Thistleburr. They host a successful mystery book sale of wrapped surprise bundles, repaint and refurnish the shop, and recruit the famed elven romance author Zelia Greatstrider, who lives nearby with her swordsman companion Berk, to attend a grand reopening. The reopening sells out Greatstrider's books, and Fern's love for bookselling is rekindled. Through it all, Viv navigates her bittersweet romance with Maylee, who insists their limited time still matters, and her loyalty to Gallina, whom she begins to see as a fellow Raven.

When Gallina's spineback hunt leads Viv to a farm, she discovers Varine's sigil at a slaughtered sheep site and races back to Murk to find the city under siege by wights. After securing Maylee, Viv fights to Iridia, retrieves the grimoire, and dog-ears a page in the middle. Varine speaks through her wights, taunting Viv before the minions collapse, revealing the necromancer's location: Thistleburr.

At the bookshop, Varine has trapped Fern and Gallina in cages of bone. Viv surrenders Satchel and the grimoire as planned bait. When Varine notices the dog-eared page, Satchel's hands erupt from the darkness and seize her. Potroast bites her free arm, and the gryphet and Satchel drag the necromancer fully into her own underspace. Viv slams the book shut, drives Blackblood through it, and destroys Varine. Satchel, missing his lower body but alive, can scarcely believe the plan worked.

Three days later, Thistleburr hosts its first book club, attended by Greatstrider herself, with Satchel introduced as the shop's permanent resident, freed from Varine's binding. Viv knows the moment is bittersweet—Rackam's Ravens are nearly back. She delivers the spent grimoire to Rackam, brings Gallina into the company, and shares painful goodbyes with Maylee, Fern, Satchel, and Potroast. Fern gives Viv the novel Crossed Purposes and the parting hope of "the story past the story."

An epilogue jumps decades forward to Legends & Lattes in Thune, where Viv, now partnered with Tandri, receives a letter from Fern announcing a sabbatical visit and noting that Maylee is well. Moved, Viv resolves to open a bookstore next door, completing the seed Fern planted in Murk so long ago.