Lin wakes from another vivid dream of fire, a tower, and a man like Suleman approaching with a Stone in his sword. At Merren Asper’s worktable in the Black Mansion, Lin reflects on her recent sleeplessness, the strange Malgasi words from earlier dreams, and the brooch-stone that healed Prince Conor and aided Kel but has since gone dull and useless.

Lin has spent the past fortnight searching Castellane for Qasmuna’s book, hoping it will explain how to draw out and preserve magic without killing the practitioner. The search has produced only frauds. Meanwhile, the city reacts with disappointment and suspicion to Conor’s Sarthian betrothal, and Ji-An confirms that Sarthe has sent the child Princess Luisa instead of Aimada, forcing Conor and the Aurelians into a humiliating diplomatic crisis.

Andreyen privately tells Lin that someone else is now urgently searching for Qasmuna’s book, possibly because Lin’s own inquiries have unsettled them. Their conversation is interrupted by Ciprian Cabrol, who demands Shenzan black powder for a planned Ascension Day strike against the Roverge fleet. Lin learns that Cabrol intends to blow up empty noble ships in the harbor as revenge, and Andreyen makes Lin promise not to reveal the plan.

After leaving the Black Mansion, Lin considers the separation between the Ashkar and the malbushim world around them. Cabrol’s violence, if it succeeds, will light the sky during the Ashkar Tevath, but Lin decides the noble fleets are not her concern as long as no one is harmed.

At Marivent, Kel is barred from the tense diplomatic meeting over Sarthe’s substitution of Luisa. Returning to the Castel Mitat, Kel meets Luisa playing by the fountain with her bodyguard, Vienne d’Este, who asks him to find toys and comforts suitable for the child. Kel recognizes Luisa as another young person trapped by power she cannot control and feels the burden of her unwanted arrival.

That night, under a blue moon, Kel grows suspicious of King Markus’s absence and decides to seek answers from Fausten in the Trick. Disguised as Conor, Kel gains entry and questions the imprisoned adviser. Fausten hints that Markus made a terrible old bargain in Malgasi, says the true danger to House Aurelian lies on the Hill rather than in the Malgasi court, and claims that Conor’s Sword Catcher will one day betray him out of envy. Kel rejects the warning as manipulation, but leaves deeply shaken.