Nina hides her panic when Jarl Brum approaches her at the Hringkälla celebration. Because Brum once saw Nina as a Grisha prisoner on the slaving ship, Nina relies on her changed appearance, perfume, dyed hair, and Menagerie disguise to pass as a Kaelish performer named Fianna. Nina flirts with Brum while probing for information about Grisha, jurda parem, and Bo Yul-Bayur.

Brum responds to Nina’s feigned fascination with Grisha by offering to show her one that night. Nina accepts because Brum may lead her to the most secure place on the White Island and possibly to Yul-Bayur. As Brum guides Nina away from the ballroom, they pass the sacred ash and the drüskelle ceremony, revealing the religious and militaristic heart of Fjerdan power.

Brum takes Nina to the old treasury, now converted into a laboratory. The building is heavily secured from outside and designed to prevent Grisha from manipulating fire or gaslight. Inside, Nina sees imprisoned Grisha in terrible condition, including a pacing boy and an unresponsive bruised girl, and Brum reveals there are close to thirty captives. Nina realizes the prisoners are being experimented on with jurda parem.

Nina decides she must get Brum alone and force him to reveal Bo Yul-Bayur’s location. Pretending to want privacy, Nina lets Brum lead her into a bare room, but the space is actually a cell with a drain in the floor. Brum locks Nina inside and reveals that he recognized her all along, both from the slaving ship and from Fjerdan intelligence files on Ravkan Grisha.

Brum threatens to dose Nina with jurda parem in gas form, making clear that Nina could be enslaved by the drug like the Grisha she has just seen. Instead, Brum defers vengeance to Matthias, who appears at the observation window. Matthias claims he warned Brum out of loyalty to Fjerda, rejects Nina’s attempt to speak to him, and says their debt is paid just as the bells of Black Protocol begin ringing outside.