CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Lin arrives at the Goddess Festival in the Sault deeply anxious about the plan she means to carry out. Mariam and Chana accompany her, and the familiar warmth of the community briefly steadies Lin, but Marivent looming above reminds Lin that Mayesh is absent at the royal banquet and will not be there to stop her. During the dancing, Natan dances with Mariam, giving Mariam rare happiness, while Oren corners Lin, renews his marriage proposal, and reveals his desire to “save” and control her. Lin rejects him sharply, leaving the dance shaken but resolved.

As the Tevath ceremony begins, the Maharam recounts the story of Adassa, Suleman, and the lost magic of Aram, then calls the young women forward to answer whether they are the Goddess Returned. Mariam denies it with dignity. When Lin’s turn comes, she breaks with generations of ritual and declares that she is the Goddess Reborn. The Maharam challenges her, Oren demands that she be tested, and Chana invokes the law that Lin must be treated as the Goddess-elect if she claims the role.

The chapter then shifts to Marivent, where skull-painted attackers in old military colors storm the Shining Gallery during the banquet for Princess Luisa. Kel hides Conor briefly, arms himself from a dead Castelguard, and fights through the melee while Conor disobeys orders and joins the battle. Amid the chaos, Kel sees Antonetta save her mother, several nobles take up weapons, and crossbow bolts strike Sena Anessa and then Luisa, killing the child princess and pinning her body to the wall.

Kel pursues the shooter to the roof and confronts a faceless, black-clad assassin, who calls Kel “Sword Catcher,” says Kel ruined the assassin’s plans, and declares that this is the beginning of the fall of House Aurelian before vanishing from the roof without leaving a body. Kel returns to find Vienne d’Este slaughtering the remaining attackers in grief and fury. Gremont dies in Kel’s arms after warning him to trust no one on the Hill and suggesting he knew danger was coming. Vienne blames Conor for Luisa’s death and attacks him; Kel blocks her, but King Markus intervenes with unnatural strength, catches Vienne’s sword, and kills her by hurling her into a wall.

Afterward, Conor is devastated and accepts responsibility for having arranged events out of pride, while Mayesh confirms that the attackers and the Sarthians are dead and that war with Sarthe is likely. Kel leaves the royal family to be guarded in the Carcel and heads for the Black Mansion, but Jolivet intercepts him. Rather than arresting Kel, Jolivet reveals that he knows of Kel’s contact with the Ragpicker King and authorizes the alliance, arguing that Kel’s divided position between palace and city may be the key to discovering who helped the assassins breach Marivent.

Back in the Sault, Lin times her false revelation to the midnight destruction of the Roverge fleet, using the explosions of black powder in the harbor as apparent divine proof. The stunned Sault kneels to her at Chana’s command, even Oren, though Lin feels sick at what she has forced her friends and people to do. The Maharam, powerless but furious, escorts Lin to the Shulamat to decide what comes next. Meanwhile, Kel sees the burning ships, understands the destruction as Cabrol revenge against Roverge, reaches the Black Mansion, and tells Andreyen he will never work for him but will work with him. Andreyen accepts, warning Kel that this secret duty may kill him without honor or recognition.