Kel goes to the Black Mansion using the password Morettus, after inventing an excuse for Conor about training at the Arena. Ji-An admits she had been following Kel on Andreyen’s orders and saved him because the Ragpicker King would have wanted him alive. When Kel casually mentions Artal Gremont, Merren reacts with fury and hints that Gremont harmed Merren’s family before Ji-An returns with Andreyen.

Andreyen privately reveals that the Ragpicker King and the Aurelian king are bound by an ancient secret contract: the Crown tolerates controlled criminal operations, while the Ragpicker King suppresses crime dangerous to Castellane and the monarchy. King Markus recently sent Andreyen a sealed message saying the city, Markus, and Conor were in danger, but the messenger, Dom Guion, was poisoned before any meeting could happen. Andreyen believes Prosper Beck may be involved and asks Kel to act as messenger because Kel’s loyalty to House Aurelian and Conor’s loyalty to Kel make him harder to eliminate quietly. Kel agrees to speak with the King.

Lin, desperate to heal Mariam, petitions the Maharam for access to the Shulamat library. The Maharam refuses immediate permission, uses the request to question her about Mayesh’s Palace business and succession as Counselor, and suggests the Sanhedrin may need to decide. Lin challenges the male authorities restricting her learning and leaves angry after realizing the Maharam is unlikely to help in time.

Back at Marivent, Kel finds Conor in his room with an obscene portrait book commissioned by Falconet as a joke about Conor’s possible marriage prospects. Their banter turns serious when Conor asks what Kel would do if Conor no longer needed a Sword Catcher, a question prompted by Lin. Kel insists he remains Királar by choice and pride, not imprisonment, while Conor admits Lin unsettles him because she refuses to fear him and refused his reward.

That night, Lin studies Qasmuna’s torn pages and learns that Source-Stones can be charged through one’s own magic, magical creatures, or the blood of a slain magic-user. Mayesh visits Lin unexpectedly, explains the political purpose of the Ashkari Counselor, and praises her ability to use power indirectly to enter the Palace. After he leaves, Lin notices two torn pages form the same ten-rayed design she saw on Petrov’s books and realizes his sold books in the Maze may hold answers; remembering Mayesh’s lesson, she begins planning to reach them through someone else.

At dawn, Kel enters the Star Tower and finds King Markus isolated, confused, and fixated on astrology. Using Andreyen’s pewter magpie token, Kel identifies himself as the Ragpicker King’s messenger, but Markus speaks cryptically of a debt not payable in gold, a debt of blood and flesh. Fausten interrupts, removes Kel, threatens him by invoking the King’s dependence on Fausten’s star-reading, and orders medicine for Markus; Kel leaves shaken, having crushed the magpie token in his fist.