The Obelisk Gate

In Castrima, Alabaster is accompanied by a stone eater named Antimony and is slowly turning into stone himself. He asks Essun if she knows anything about the moon and if she can call the obelisks to her yet. Essun has no idea what he is talking about but accepts his task of attempting to call an obelisk. Alabaster is initially frustrated by Essun’s ignorance and indifference, and she is annoyed by his reluctance to explain anything, but the two are happy to see one another after all this time.

Essun is surprised when Ykka, the self-trained orogene and comm leader of Castrima, asks her and Hoa to advise her in running the comm. Unsure of her long-term plans now that the trail for Nassun and Jija has gone cold, Essun reluctantly accepts the position. They are then joined by Cutter, another self-trained orogene from Castrima who has only recently come out as an orogene, and Hjarka, a member of the leadership class who actively does not want to be a headwoman. These four form Ykka’s advisory council and have a meeting about the comm’s needs. The topics range from personal complaints about things like the water not being hot enough to more existential threats like having no meat and grain stores being infected by fungus. Essun feels overwhelmed by the sudden change in priorities. Until now she had a single goal and purpose—finding Nassun—and did not have to consider the well-being of anyone else.

After the meeting, Essun stays behind, wanting to talk to Ykka in private. She vaguely explains why she wants to go to the surface. Ykka is intrigued and gathers a group of Strongbacks (laborers) to go with them. On the surface, the air is a haze of ash, and it is impossible to see far in any direction. The first obelisk Essun finds is not the one she expected and feels potentially more powerful. She calls it onyx and knows that it “hears” her. She then finds the topaz, the obelisk she was initially looking for, and calls it as well. Satisfied that she has accomplished Alabaster’s task, she warns Ykka not to reach out to the obelisks because to do so would likely be fatal. Hoa hasn’t been paying attention to the skies or what Essun is doing. Instead, he is focused on a small mound of dirt that contains desiccated animal parts and appears to scare him. They quickly descend back into Castrima.

The narrator shifts to Schaffa, suggesting that he is an important part of Essun as well—or at least that he was until he became someone else after the events at Meov.

The story jumps back to the Guardians’ attack on Meov and Syenite’s counterattack. Schaffa is suffering from blast injuries that are severe enough to kill him. As he starts to drown, he panics, which is the first and worst sin a Guardian can commit. The entity that he lets in during this moment of panic (later revealed to be Father Earth) offers him the opportunity to live. Despite knowing that death would be a better alternative to the price it will demand, Schaffa allows it to take over. Driven by the power of this new anger, he struggles to the surface, all the while feeling parts of his brain slowly dying: “What remains is a man with a habit of smiling, a warped paternal instinct, and a rage that is not wholly his own driving everything he does from now on” (42).

Schaffa is discovered on the shores near Allia by a man named Litz and does not remember much of anything. Litz is from a coastal comm nearby and provides Schaffa with food, water, and shelter as he recovers. While there, Schaffa meets a young boy named Eitz (grandson of Litz), who realizes that Schaffa is a Guardian. Eitz is an orogene and is terrified that he will either hurt someone or be discovered by his family. The conversation triggers an instinct in Schaffa, and he agrees to help the boy. He presses his hand to the back of the boy’s neck and draws out something he knows he needs but can’t remember the name of. This unnamed something refreshes and energizes Schaffa, though he stops because he senses it would kill the boy if he took too much. Schaffa starts to explain to Eitz’s mother that he is going to take him away but ends up killing all the adults in the family instead. Schaffa knows he is supposed to take the boy somewhere but can’t remember where. He instead allows the angry whispers in his head to steer him south.

Essun wakes from the most restful sleep she’s had in months to the sound of screaming somewhere outside her new apartment in Castrima. At first, she considers ignoring it and going back to sleep, but the look of pity on Hoa’s usually stoic face convinces her otherwise.

Upon arrival at the infirmary, Essun notices the screaming man smells of hot fat and that his clothes have wet patches all over them. He is covered by small little iridescent dots embedded in his skin that Essun learns are small bugs. The bugs are so hot they burn Lerna, the comm doctor, when he tries to remove them by hand, and they spit boiling hot water whenever someone gets near them with forceps. Alabaster remains on the other side of the infirmary, and Essun feels him pinpoint one of the boilbugs and freeze it. The task is too exhausting for Alabaster to repeat in his current state, but Essun realizes what to do and she proceeds to remove the remaining bugs.

A short time later, Lerna approaches Essun outside the infirmary, visibly shaken because he is going to have to kill the man anyway; during a Season, only those who are strong enough to be productive are allowed to survive. Lerna accosts Essun about why she is there and demands to know how long the Season will last (rumors are spreading that she told Ykka it would be thousands of years). He reveals that he knows from Alabaster’s injuries that he caused the Season. Before storming off, Lerna asks what she and Alabaster are doing with the obelisks and what she plans to do about the Season. Essun is stunned by Lerna’s anger and hasn’t really considered that there is anything she could or should do about anything.

Nearby, Ykka is shouting at a young man protesting the decision to kill his friend because of the boilbug injuries. When Essun approaches, Ykka calls her “Bugkiller” and is upset that she stepped in to help; it put all the weight of the decision on her and shifted it from an act based in mercy to one of pragmatism and comm policy.