As twelve-year-old Will, once weighed down by childhood taunts, renames himself in the new town and joins the Caver Gang in the neighborhood’s small field. He quickly becomes enmeshed in their blend of friendship and arcane ritual and finds himself braving Beginner’s Maw so that he might carve his name into The Rock and truly become one of them. Soon, he is brought to The Oracle’s cave and becomes acquainted with the parasitic godling deep within the limestone. After dwelling on what to ask, he finally settles on the most foolish question you can ever ask: “When and how do I die?” This question draws out a prophecy of his own death at twenty-three, delivered in a chorus of voices that haunt Will’s flesh and mind. Consumed by fear and fascinated by a promised way of rewriting fate, Will embarks on a reckless quest to harvest coins from innocence, betrayal, slaying, and grieving love—each a painful counterweight to the prophecy The Oracle has wielded against him. Yet, every transaction exacts its price in memory, trust, and agency: friendships stretch, trust fractures, and the sacred space of childhood play becomes a shadow-haunted labyrinth of debt and desire. What began as a gauntlet of youthful initiation transfigures into a tomb of horror, each bartered coin and broken oath driving Will ever closer to the monster he fears he must become to survive the cruel calculus of The Bitter Question.