Chaol watches Celaena and Dorian walking in the courtyard from above instead of guarding them himself. Although duty tells Chaol that Celaena is dangerous and could use Dorian to escape, Chaol realizes his distrust is weakening. Celaena’s humor, intelligence, and survival of Endovier make Chaol pity and admire her, and Chaol is disturbed most of all by the fact that he has begun to trust her.

During the walk, Celaena enjoys Dorian’s company while worrying about Nehemia’s withdrawal after the massacre in Eyllwe and the ongoing killings among the Champions. Three more competitors have died mutilated in hidden hallways, Pelor has been eliminated, and only six Champions remain: Cain, Grave, Nox, a soldier, Renault, and Celaena. Renault has replaced Verin as Cain’s ally and now taunts Celaena.

Dorian notices Celaena’s amulet and recalls legends about Elena’s magical necklace, the Eye of Elena, which protected Elena from Erawan and helped Gavin defeat him. Celaena tries to dismiss the resemblance as coincidence, but Dorian’s recognition alarms her. The conversation shifts to Dorian’s brother Hollin, whose return for Yulemas has been delayed by snow, but Celaena remains shaken because wearing a powerful royal heirloom could endanger her if the king discovered it.

Later, in her rooms, Celaena cannot focus on reading because she is troubled by Elena’s motives and the castle murders. When Celaena retrieves a fallen book from beneath her bed, candlelight reveals chalk Wyrdmarks drawn in a spiral on the floor. The central mark matches one Celaena saw carved into Verin’s corpse, so Celaena panics, washes and scrubs the marks away, and goes to the library at midnight for answers.

In the library, Celaena finds Nehemia secretly reading an advanced old book in the area where Celaena had researched Wyrdmarks. Nehemia reacts defensively, speaks the common tongue with flawless pronunciation, and leaves abruptly, contradicting her earlier claims of limited reading and language ability. Celaena then finds a fallen paper marked with a Wyrdmark and realizes Nehemia may have deceived her. Although Celaena wants to believe Nehemia is her friend, Nehemia’s political reasons for striking against Adarlan make Celaena suspect that Nehemia may be connected to the killings and the marks in Celaena’s room.