After Master Jun bans Rin from Combat, Rin breaks down outside the courtyard, convinced that losing Jun's instruction will make passing the Trials impossible. Her despair turns to anger when Rin realizes Nezha has been treated leniently because of his noble birth, while Rin is disposable because she is poor and foreign to Sinegard's elite. Kitay tries to comfort Rin, but Rin rejects his reassurance and declares that the Keju is not true mobility but a false hope used to pacify peasants.

That night, Rin wakes covered in blood and panics until the infirmary staff explains menstruation to her. The pain, inconvenience, missed classes, and certainty that the bleeding will recur every month terrify Rin because anything that weakens her threatens her place at Sinegard. After Kureel and Arda explain that the infirmary can stop menstruation by destroying the womb, Rin decides without regret that she would rather lose the ability to have children than risk being sent back to Tikany.

Rin takes the physician's concoction, endures severe pain, vomiting, fever, and several days bedridden, then returns to class too early and finds herself far behind. Instead of giving up, Rin interprets the setback as a needed reminder that Sinegard has never guaranteed her safety. Rin resumes burning herself, stops sleeping and eating properly, and throws herself into study because chosen misery at Sinegard is preferable to the future awaiting her in Tikany.

Within a month, Rin rises from the bottom of the class to the top ranks, beating Nezha on a Linguistics exam and discovering that praise from masters gives her a powerful, addictive sense of validation. Rin especially excels in Master Irjah's Strategy class, where Irjah challenges students with military dilemmas. Kitay wins one exercise with a clever plan to harvest enemy arrows, while Rin shocks the class in another by proposing to break a dam, drown civilians and enemies alike, and sacrifice the valley for long-term military advantage.

Irjah calls Rin to his office and questions both her dam solution and an earlier essay in which Rin proposed destroying an imperial village while disguising the attack as Mugenese aggression. Rin links the idea to the Speerly Massacre and suggests that someone in Nikan may have allowed Speer to fall for political and strategic reasons. Irjah is disturbed but impressed, and when Rin recognizes that her dam plan would win tactically but destroy the possibility of peace, Irjah praises her intelligence and says she could become a Strategy apprentice if she survives the Trials.

Because Jun still will not let Rin return to Combat, Rin secretly turns to the library to teach herself martial arts. After ordinary manuals prove useless and Kureel refuses to help, Rin steals a restricted illustrated manual by Ha Seejin and practices alone in the courtyard. Rin also studies matches in the rings, especially Altan's, realizing that Altan's undefeated fighting is not merely strength but precise, disciplined genius.