Celaena, now unchained and dressed for public display, enters Rifthold with Dorian and Chaol in a royal procession. Dorian plays to the cheering crowd while Celaena notices the city’s filth beneath its wealth and irritates Chaol by pretending to flirt with admirers and suggesting she could run. Chaol reminds Celaena that escape would likely end with arrows in her back.

As the procession passes the shopping district and the Avery docks, Celaena sees chained slaves being unloaded and forced to work. The sight overwhelms Celaena because it reminds her of Endovier and of Adarlan’s conquests; Celaena wants to separate herself from the royal court and remembers freeing nearly two hundred slaves from the Pirate Lord, though even that feels insufficient. The cheering city becomes alien and unbearable to Celaena.

At the castle, Dorian notes the scale of the glass-and-stone palace, tells Celaena the competition begins the next day, and leaves to meet his father. Chaol escorts Celaena to spacious guarded rooms in the stone castle. Once alone, Celaena counts windows, exits, guards, and weapons, then identifies a possible escape route through the garden, game park, and toward the Avery River.

Celaena searches the chambers and improvises a weapon from broken bone hairpins tied with string, hiding it in the bed canopy. Celaena also notices that the gaming room contains billiards cues and balls that could serve as weapons if needed. After briefly sleeping, Celaena is measured by a tailor, bathed and groomed by servants, and dressed beautifully for court, but the finery makes Celaena feel less like a champion than a royal lapdog.

Philippa Spindlehead arrives as Celaena’s personal servant and reveals that only a few people know Celaena’s true identity. Philippa explains that the other Champions also have guards, while others may assume Celaena is another of Dorian’s lady-friends. When Celaena tries to intimidate Philippa, Philippa calmly warns that bad behavior could send Celaena back to the mines and insists that Celaena will act properly under Philippa’s care.

Meanwhile, Dorian meets the King of Adarlan, who questions Celaena’s arrival and warns that she is dangerous and loyal only to herself. Dorian argues that Celaena is capable enough to make the competition unnecessary, but the king defends the contest, praises Duke Perrington’s Champion Cain, and reminds Dorian of Adarlan’s wars and ambitions. After Dorian challenges his father about the empire, Terrasen, Wendlyn, and Celaena, the king forbids Dorian from courting the assassin and strikes Dorian for his defiance. Dorian leaves in controlled anger.