Lin goes to Dom Petrov’s house in the Fountain Quarter without an appointment and finds the door unlocked. Inside, the flat has been stripped bare: Petrov’s furniture, books, plants, and hidden floorboard cache are gone, and dried blood stains the floor. Lin realizes that Petrov likely knew danger was coming and protected the strange stone by giving it to Lin.

Domna Albertine, Petrov’s landlady, confronts Lin and says men claiming to be Petrov’s friends came for him before he disappeared. Albertine admits she sold Petrov’s books to a dealer in the Maze, then hurls anti-Ashkari slurs and threats. Lin leaves enraged but restrains herself because the Vigilants would side with a Castellani woman over an Ashkari girl; touching the stone calms Lin and deepens Lin’s sense of responsibility toward it.

At sunset, Kel moves through Castellane under Conor’s black cloak, thinking about King Markus’s decline, Fausten’s influence, and Conor’s fear after the failed Dial Chamber. Kel enters the Scholars’ Quarter and breaks into Merren Asper’s student flat, where Merren is hiding among plants, medicines, and phials. Kel threatens to destroy Merren’s valuable blue liquid unless Merren explains the deception at the Caravel.

Merren says Alys did not know about the trap, Hadja was misled by a false message from Ji-An, and the Ragpicker King only wanted to offer Kel work. Kel gets the remaining cantarella antidote and some of the poison, then learns that Merren, Andreyen, and Ji-An know Kel is the Sword Catcher. Merren urges Kel to trust the Ragpicker King more than the Aurelians, claiming the nobles and royal family will abandon Kel in the end, as Merren believes they abandoned Merren’s father.

Kel unexpectedly feels sympathy and attraction toward Merren, along with envy for Merren’s private, independent life. Disturbed by the impulse to kiss Merren and by the thought of acting outside Conor’s knowledge, Kel leaves abruptly. Wandering to the harbor, Kel reflects on drowned Tyndaris and resolves to return to Marivent and forget the Ragpicker King.

On the Key, Crawlers ambush Kel, mistaking him for Prince Conor because of the cloak. Their leader, Jerrod, says Prosper Beck sent them because Conor owes Beck ten thousand crowns. Jerrod realizes Kel is not the Prince, but the gang debates killing him until an unseen archer shoots Lola and another Crawler. In the chaos, Kaspar stabs Kel; Jerrod apologizes and asks who Kel is, but Kel refuses to reveal the truth and collapses, thinking of Conor, Jolivet, Antonetta, and Mayesh before losing consciousness.