Valcrest burns its witches. Ravenhallow puts them to work.
A black fortress-cathedral on a sea cliff, where condemned witches are spared the pyre to fight a war for the Church that hunts them. A silver ribbon on every wrist. A hunter's gun at every back. A monster asleep inside every girl in the Cages.
Every witch in Ravenhallow was tied to a stake before she was tied to a Ribbon. Every witch's Mark rises with her heart. Wound her, betray her, make her cry, and you push her closer to the Hag. Pick a witch to see her craft, her crime, her Mark, and the hunter who has to kill her if she turns.
There is no pardon at Ravenhallow. A witch serves until she dies, turns, or the war ends, and nobody believes the Church will let her go even then. The year runs from the Ribbon Rite to the Ash Festival, and Kharvenn's army reaches the walls by winter.
AUTUMNARRIVALEvery new witch has her Ribbon tied on in front of the academy, then is handed to a hunter.
The sweet new girl who only wanted a friend turns in the courtyard. Everyone learns what the Mercy looks like.
Cast in front of the hunters without your Mark slipping. After night one, nobody jokes about it.
WINTERTHE FRONTHold a frozen river town against frost-giants, beside soldiers who'd rather shoot you.
Nobles and bishops visit, and the witches are made to perform. Someone is poisoned.
The war's biggest battle, on the ice. Kharvenn's battle-mages turn out to be free witches, and they make an offer.
SPRINGTHE FIRELune's sedation fails, and the whole academy falls into her dream for one night.
The Church demands one Ravenhallow witch for the capital's pyre, to keep up appearances. The Abbess chooses who.
Something comes for the witches. Everyone has to choose a side.
The Church grades every witch by how many people she could kill, and ties her Ribbon to match. Hunters are ranked by what they're trusted to finish. A grade measures danger, so it almost never goes down.
The more threads on her Ribbon, the more the Church fears her.
Every rank has the same final duty: the Mercy.
The hunters who share a bridge with the Cages, and the people who run the prison. Every witch who burns, runs or turns counts against her hunter, so most of them want their witch to live, even if they'd never say so.
You're tied to the stake and the town is singing when a silver-masked rider arrives with a writ. You reach Ravenhallow that night in chains, in time to have the Ribbon tied on in front of everyone. A nervous girl in big round glasses asks if she can sit with you. By morning, someone will have to kill her.
Sworn in as a Silverhand at dawn and sent to Ravenhallow without explanation. The Warden hands you the key to the last cell. The Inquisitor before you asked to be reassigned. The witch inside is smiling.
A Kharvenn spy, a free witch hiding in the capital, a cultist lighting candles in a cellar, a priest who knows what silver fire is made of. Tell the story who you are.
Ravenhallow,
or the flames.
Nine witches. Nine hunters. One war nobody is winning. And somewhere in Valcrest, a record the Church ordered burned.