Conor, Kel, Luisa, Vienne, and the Sarthian ambassadors travel by carriage to House Roverge for a party celebrating the alliance. Conor deliberately dresses as Turan, the God of desire, both flamboyantly defying decorum and insisting that Luisa must see the world she will inhabit if Sarthe keeps her in Castellane. At the Roverge mansion, the riotous display of dyes and hired courtesans signals Charter Family power as much as festivity.

Antonetta warmly takes charge of Luisa, while the ambassadors pursue their own interests with Benedict Roverge. Conor joins Joss, Montfaucon, and Charlon, drinks wine laced with poppy-drops, and tries to lose himself in intoxication. Lin arrives with Mayesh, who leaves her among the younger nobles; Conor and his friends notice her, and Kel moves to speak with her after the men make crude remarks.

Charlon turns the evening into a calculated insult to Sarthe by presenting Luisa with a fan and demanding that she dance, implying she should be interchangeable with her older sister Aimada. The crowd chants, Luisa begins to cry while dancing awkwardly, and Lin intervenes, stopping the humiliation. Kel helps Vienne remove Luisa, while Lin, angered by the cruelty, offers to dance in Luisa’s place.

Conor tells Charlon to let Lin dance, and Lin performs the Dance of the Goddess with fierce defiance, embodying Adassa’s grief, power, and the destruction of magic. The room is stunned, but Conor publicly dismisses the performance as merely acceptable, enraging Lin. Lin throws the fan at his feet and leaves; Conor follows her, and their argument exposes his resentment that she seems beyond his power, his belief that the Hill corrupts everything, and her disgust at his cruelty to Luisa and to her.

The confrontation turns into a violent, desire-filled kiss, but a sound in the corridor breaks the moment. Lin pulls away, ashamed and shaken, then tells Conor that Mayesh brought her because she might someday take his position as Counselor; after seeing the Hill, she hopes never to return. Later, Kel stays with Vienne and Luisa, then leaves with Antonetta, who reveals she wanted to marry Conor to keep control of the silk Charter and that she secretly practices swordplay despite her mother’s disapproval.

Kel notices crates labeled Singing Monkey Wine, the same name he saw in Prosper Beck’s office, and wonders whether the Roverges are connected to Beck. He steals Antonetta’s locket, opens its hidden compartment, and finds the grass ring he gave her years ago, then returns the locket while pretending she dropped it. On the terrace, Polidor Sardou interprets Kel’s earlier actions as anti-Sarthe loyalty and hints at pressuring the marriage; Kel withdraws, disturbed by all the lies and betrayals around him. That night, Lin dreams again of Adassa and Suleman, mixing desire and murder, and the chapter closes with a Makabi passage about the Ashkar facing a king who wants to use their magic.