"The Sun in the Palm of Your Hand (First Part)"Razhel and her two companions get lost but chance across a town which takes part in a type of sky burial where corpses are placed on stakes in a forest near town to decay and be eaten by birds. Razhel meets a young girl named Lalawel whose father runs an inn in town, and Razhel and her friends plan to stay there; Lalawel's father even gives Alzeid a clue as to his father's murderer. After Lalawel goes missing, Razhel and the others search for her and eventually discover that the town has changed since Lalawel was born eight years previous, and that there is growing belief that Lalawel's father participates in black magic in order to keep Lalawel alive.
