At Kaul Dushuron Academy, year-eight students practice combining Strength and Steel by striking stacks of heated bricks. Emery Anden performs better than most, breaking six bricks without burning his hands, but afterward he suffers a sharp withdrawal crash because of his unusually high jade sensitivity.

Anden speaks briefly with Ton, who invites him to join classmates at the Docks for Boat Day festivities. As Anden walks away, he reflects on his lonely position at the Academy: respected, never openly excluded, but never fully accepted because of his mixed heritage and the discomfort he inspires in others.

Pau Noni tells Anden that a visitor is waiting, and Anden finds Kaul Hilo at the entrance. Hilo has come to wish Anden a late happy birthday, but after teasing Anden for being formal, Hilo abruptly attacks him. The fight draws spectators; Anden, though unjaded and outmatched, keeps fighting and manages to wound Hilo before Hilo pins him. Hilo treats the beating as affectionate testing and praises Anden’s talent, especially Anden’s ability to sense and draw on Hilo’s jade resonance.

After the fight, Hilo walks with Anden and talks about Anden’s future in No Peak: beginning as a Finger, then quickly becoming a Fist with territory and people of his own. Hilo urges Anden to choose loyal, disciplined classmates as future subordinates. Hilo also tells Anden that he knows Anden likes boys and says it does not matter to him, though Anden will need to be careful once he wears jade because others may target him for it.

Anden confesses his fear that he may not be able to handle jade because he is only half Kekonese and because his mother died from jade-induced madness. A flashback reveals that young Anden found his mother mutilating herself during an attack of the Itches; Lan and Kaul Sen took her to the hospital, but she died screaming for her jade. Hilo insists Anden is better trained and protected, and says military-grade SN1, or shine, could help blunt Anden’s sensitivity if necessary.

Hilo mentions that Shae says hello but does not answer Anden’s question about her return. Instead, Hilo warns that No Peak will need every loyal initiate soon: Kaul Sen is failing, Ayt Yu is dead, Ayt Mada is coming after them, and trouble with the Mountain is near. Anden thinks clan tension remains distant from his sealed Academy life, but the chapter ends by stating that he is wrong and that the conflict reaches him the following week.