Chaol meets his father in the captain’s office, where his father’s contempt and manipulation quickly surface. Chaol insists that he intends to honor his bargain and return to Anielle, but only after finding a suitable replacement as Captain of the Guard.

Chaol privately needs time for more dangerous reasons. He has been trying and failing to track Aedion during the general’s supposed nights of revelry, and he plans to follow him more closely. Chaol has also begun considering a risky search for the rebels connected to Archer and Nehemia, hoping they might truly know how to break the king’s hold over magic and help Dorian and Celaena.

Chaol’s father presses harder, implying that Chaol’s delay could expose the truth behind sending Celaena to Wendlyn. He then produces a letter from Chaol’s mother, using it to unsettle Chaol. Chaol refuses to read it, though the refusal is painful, and the negotiation ends with Chaol gaining only two months in exchange for owing his father a future favor.

Later, Sorscha is summoned to Dorian’s tower chambers and finds him embarrassed amid clutter, with an injured hand and split lip. While treating him, she struggles to hide her long-standing infatuation and answers his questions guardedly, revealing that she comes from Fenharrow.

Dorian asks why Sorscha never reported his and his friends’ activities. Sorscha explains, indirectly, that she believes the world needs better people and that her own village was burned before her parents were killed during Rifthold’s immigrant purge. Dorian responds with grief and apology, and after dismissing her gently, he later sends a messenger to ask her village’s name so he can add it to his personal map.