Chapter 30

Medra slips into a pitch-black hidden stair after Blake, driven by anger over his earlier intrusion into her mind and a need for leverage. The passage descends into vast catacombs where dragon skulls line chambers and corridors marked by the four houses. Choosing Drakharrow, Medra follows tunnels that open onto sea cliffs dotted with abandoned dragon lairs.

She continues through narrowing, damp passages beneath the sea and emerges via a hatch into a tavern storeroom. Stepping into The Wandering Page, she notes highblood students mingling but no sign of Blake. Outside, her first view of Veilmar shatters her hopes: children sell their blood on the streets. A drunk patron insists highbloods are protectors and dismisses exsanguination murders as the work of a mad killer, revealing the populace’s indoctrination.

Torn between fury and helplessness, Medra debates what she can do. The rescued fluffin appears and, despite Orcades’s sardonic commentary from the dagger, Medra follows the creature through decaying neighborhoods to a red-lit establishment called The Drained Rose—clearly a blood brothel where blightborn and highbloods mingle in predatory intimacy.

There, Medra sees Blake arrive with Professor Rodriguez. The two argue tensely; Rodriguez storms off, leaving Blake to straighten his cuffs and head inside the brothel. Refusing to turn back after coming so far, Medra steels herself and follows Blake into The Drained Rose.