Dorian watches in terror as Celaena thrashes on the ground, apparently fighting invisible enemies while Cain stands over her smiling. Dorian suspects the wine may have been drugged, but fears that accusing anyone or interfering would disqualify Celaena. Chaol is frozen in horror, and Nehemia moves to the edge of the ring, secretly tracing symbols in the air.

Inside Celaena's hallucination, the dead surround her and Cain appears as a shadowy demonic figure. As Celaena realizes Cain is waiting to kill her, her will to survive returns. She screams for help, and the dead recoil just before doors between worlds burst open and Queen Elena descends in golden light.

As Cain raises his sword in the real world, a violent wind knocks him down, mirroring Elena's intervention in Celaena's vision. Elena scatters the dead, shields Celaena with golden light, and explains that she cannot protect Celaena or give her strength, but can remove the poison from Celaena's body.

Elena urges Celaena to reach the broken head of Nehemia's staff, which the wind has blown close to her. While Elena works to purge the poison, Cain regains his footing, looks to the king, and receives a nod. Cain then pushes through Elena's golden wall in his shadow form, revealing that he knows the gathered people have been brought together as part of an unfinished game.

Elena drives Cain's shadow form away with blue light and holds back the dead long enough for the poison to fade. As Celaena returns to reality, she sees Nehemia still making strange motions at the edge of the ring and feels her injuries fully. Elena commands Celaena to stand, then vanishes; Cain approaches as an ordinary man, and Celaena rises with the broken staff in hand.