Joost, a young stadwatch guard assigned to Councilman Hoede’s mansion, neglects his rounds while trying to invent a romantic compliment for Anya, a Grisha Healer indentured to Hoede. Joost feels insecure about his youth, his thin mustache, and the mockery of older house guards Henk and Rutger, but he hopes loyal service at Hoede’s wealthy house might advance his career.

When Joost reaches the Grisha workshop, Anya and the Fabrikator Yuri are absent, leaving only Retvenko, Hoede’s older Squaller. Retvenko says Hoede took Anya an hour earlier, just as Hoede previously took Yuri before Yuri returned sick and then disappeared. Retvenko’s warning unsettles Joost, but their exchange turns hostile, and Retvenko uses wind to shove Joost out and slam the doors.

Rutger summons Joost to the boathouse, which Joost had been told was under renovation. Instead, Joost finds a reinforced steel cell with mirrored glass, many guards, Hoede, the stadwatch captain, and another merchant. Inside the cell sit Anya, a frightened little boy, and a stadwatch sergeant, revealing that Hoede has gathered witnesses for a controlled test involving Anya.

Hoede orders the sergeant to cut the boy so Anya can heal him, and Anya reluctantly does so by touch. Then Hoede has Anya swallow a powder called parem, lowering the dose after apparently disastrous results with Yuri. The drug rapidly changes Anya’s behavior and power: her pupils darken, she heals the boy instantly without touching him, and Hoede prepares to escalate the test by ordering the sergeant to cut off the boy’s thumb.

Before the mutilation can happen, Anya commands the sergeant to shoot the observation glass, and the sergeant obeys, proving that parem has given Anya an ability to control minds as well as enhance her healing. Hoede insists she be restrained rather than killed because of her value, but Anya raises her hands and compels the room into calm obedience. She takes the boy in her arms, makes Hoede open the cell and enter, and ends the chapter by ordering Hoede to pick up the knife.