The Hollowing

When cartographer Soren Vael tests a well and finds water with no memory of rain, no taste of iron, no rot of marsh, he marks it on his sketch and moves on, but the sickness has already taken root. Across the realm, villages are waking to find their wells emptied of meaning, their livestock drained of breath, their children forgetting their own names. The Hollowing has begun, and it is spreading south like a whisper. Soren's journey draws him into the company of Maris Thorne, an exiled knight with a bloodied past; Father Solene, a priest whose faith is cracking under the weight of unanswered prayers; and Elara Vant, a young woman whose sister Mira was taken by the Hollow Pilgrims, the hollow-eyed faithful who march toward the throne of a forgotten king. They are hunted by the Hooded Figure and stalked by Grigor Fen, a hollowed man who speaks in the voice of something older than the land itself. Master Aldous Pendrake, the cartographer's old teacher, holds the last fragments of a map that charts the path of every previous hollowing, and warns that the Sealed Sisters bound the Hollow King once before, at terrible cost. As the Sealed Sisters' wardens begin to fail, as Hesta the Sealed Sister whispers of a breaking seal, Soren must decide whether to trust the road ahead or the silence behind. Some maps lead to answers. Others lead only to the place where memory ends.