Nina follows Kaz up the Ice Court prison stairs while worrying about Kaz’s stiff gait and secretive reasons for making the climb himself. They pause for patrols, and when guards suddenly enter the stairwell, Nina and Kaz hide on the third-floor cell level. Nina silences a shouting prisoner by briefly choking him unconscious with her Heartrender power, and the guards pass without discovering them.

At the top floor, the Elderclock marks that an hour has passed since the holding-cell prisoners were drugged, leaving Nina and Kaz forty-five minutes to search and rejoin the others near the incinerator. Kaz sends Nina down one corridor while Kaz searches another. Nina checks cell after cell through steel doors, finding prisoners but no Shu scientist.

As Nina searches, Nina considers what she would do if Bo Yul-Bayur were there. Nina thinks she could kill Bo quietly in his cell and lie to Kaz, and if Kaz found Bo first, Nina might rely on Matthias to help her stop Bo later. But the ordinary high-security cells yield nothing, and Nina’s hope of finding the scientist fades.

In the final corridor, Nina discovers a bright, sterile white section behind a steel door. Inside are empty glass-fronted cells with drains and reddish stains, and Nina finds a silver Squaller button. Nina realizes the rooms were likely made with Grisha labor and designed to imprison Grisha: no metal, no plumbing, mirrored glass, and materials meant to resist Grisha abilities. The discovery terrifies Nina because the cells seem built for people like her.

Nina flees the white cells shaken, longing for Ravka and feeling the danger of being Grisha in Fjerda more intensely than ever. When the Elderclock chimes the three-quarter hour, Nina realizes Kaz has not returned to the stair landing. Nina searches Kaz’s corridor but finds no trace of Kaz, forcing Nina to choose between looking longer and returning to the others.

Nina heads back to the stairwell and runs straight into two guards. Nina knocks them down, but one guard’s rifle fires as he tumbles, sending shots echoing through the prison. Nina kills another guard who bursts onto the stairs, and then the Elderclock sounds a shrill alarm, signaling that the crew’s stealth has been compromised.