The first Vigil with a name has finally arrived, and the valley can feel it in its bones. Liora wakes on Crumb’s day with a motto in her hands and a thousand expectations waiting at the edge of the hill. The bakery turns out less by design—half-loaves, split fairly, with no room left for pretty surprises—and the Circle ahead won’t be satisfied with comfort alone. Because remembrance is easy in candlelight. Carrying the way forward, together, is not.   

~ N.W. Pathling

On the day of the Vigil—when lanterns are lit and the Crossroads gathers to remember what was lost—Crumb’s Year of Apprentices turns back to the warmth that came before the weight. Set five years before Book I, it stays behind the counter for one full baking year: flour-dusted mornings, quiet corrections, small mercies, and lessons that sound like craft until you realize they’re also about living. Told in close, human moments, it follows Crumb while he is still teaching—still shaping hands and hearts around a hearth that feels bigger than any one person. It’s a story of patience, community, and the way ordinary days become sacred in hindsight… especially when everyone is gathered, candles burning low, to honor a name and what it meant to be loved well. 

~ N.W. Pathling

Book I: The First Pathfinder

Where it begins. Follow Crumb and his circle as they discover what it means to keep the roads in a valley where Faith and Fate intersect. 

Book II: The Way of the Pathfinders

The story continues with Liora the Candlekeeper and what happened a year later after the first book. We walk back into the Crossroads to see how they are handling it all.

Crumb's Year of Apprentice

Many years before book I we pick up with Crumb and his three apprentices over the course of a year we learn, along with them, what it means to be more than a baker.

Explore the World

Not sure where to begin? Explore the World of the Crossroads and beyond. If you want to learn about the world or brush back up on material to continue your journey.