After Rin decides to pursue Strategy rather than Jiang’s Lore, Jiang disappears from the garden and refuses to acknowledge her around campus. As the term ends, the first-years become consumed by the looming Trials, which will determine whether they receive apprenticeship bids or are expelled. Raban explains that most exams will be oral, while Combat will be judged through a tournament.

The students obsess over likely apprenticeships and tournament odds. Rin knows Jun will never bid for her, so she hopes Irjah will take her for Strategy, but she also understands that she must prove she can fight. While studying with Kitay and training alone, Rin briefly encounters Altan practicing in the Lore garden, and their awkward conversation hints at his complicated history with Jiang.

During the oral exams, Rin excels in Irjah’s Strategy questioning, then risks angering Jun by arguing that Nikan may have deliberately sacrificed Speer to provoke Hesperian intervention in the Second Poppy War. Jiang unexpectedly shields her from Jun’s anger and asks her about the Chuluu Korikh. Rin offers a partial speculative answer about unnatural criminals imprisoned for unnatural crimes, leaving the masters unsettled.

In the tournament, Rin defeats Han and two other opponents by exploiting fear, patterns, and the unfamiliar footwork Jiang’s training gave her. She advances to the elimination rounds, breaks Venka’s nose, and beats her by taking advantage of Venka’s inexperience with real injury. Nezha brutalizes his side of the bracket, crippling Nohai badly enough that Raban urges Rin to surrender, but Rin refuses because pride and hatred have made beating Nezha more important than securing a bid.

In the final match, Rin and Nezha fight evenly until exhaustion and rage push both beyond restraint. After Nezha scratches and slaps Rin, Rin loses control, overwhelms him, pins him, and continues attacking after Sonnen calls the break. Burning with an unnatural heat and violent impulse, Rin flees to the Lore garden, where Jiang subdues her and uses a freezing, mysterious power to stop the fire coursing through her body.

Rin wakes in the infirmary as tournament champion, frightened by what happened and desperate to understand it. Jiang explains that Rin has stumbled onto dangerous power and compares her to Altan, revealing that the Empress prevented Jiang from teaching Altan and instead allowed Altan’s rage to be weaponized. Because the Empress does not know about Rin, Jiang agrees to take Rin as his apprentice; when bids are distributed, Rin receives offers from Irjah and Jiang and chooses Lore.