After discovering Altan’s opium use, Rin breaks down and Ramsa admits the Cike have long known about it. Ramsa explains that Altan once used opium only occasionally and that the others covered for him, but Rin initially sees the addiction as a betrayal of his duty as commander. Ramsa rebukes her judgment, reminding Rin that Altan survived the destruction of Speer and carries pain Rin cannot fully understand.

Over the next two weeks, the Cike search Golyn Niis and find fewer than a thousand survivors in a city that once held half a million. With no orders coming and Altan often absent or incapacitated, Chaghan takes over routine duties. Rin keeps watch while suffering insomnia, nausea, and intrusive memories of the massacre, and she concludes that the Federation’s cruelty comes from seeing the Nikara as less than human, the same logic that enabled Speer’s destruction.

During a night watch, Rin overhears Altan and Chaghan arguing beneath the gate. Altan proposes raising an army of shamans by releasing the prisoners in the Chuluu Korikh, including the Gatekeeper, Feylen, and others. Chaghan calls the plan uncontrollable and catastrophic, but Altan insists that after Golyn Niis any atrocity is justified to win the war and says the Empress has approved him. When Chaghan refuses, Altan orders Chaghan to go north with Qara to the dam or leave the Cike.

Rin confronts Chaghan and Qara as they prepare to depart, demanding to know why Chaghan will not stop Altan. Chaghan reveals that after the First Poppy War, the Federation experimented on kidnapped Speerlies to understand shamanism. Altan was drugged, starved, tortured, and forced to watch other Speerlies dissected alive; he survived as the only one. Chaghan explains that Altan’s power comes not merely from being Speerly, but from hatred so complete that the Phoenix, god of fire and vengeance, is always alive inside him.

Rin then finds Altan in the ancient library with his opium pipe. Instead of condemning him, she smokes with him and understands that the drug gives him rare relief from pain and memory. Altan tells Rin he is about to do something terrible and offers her a choice: remain in Golyn Niis and fight conventionally, or accompany him to the prison under the stone and help unleash the imprisoned shamans. Believing Nikan has no other hope and consumed by hatred for Mugen, Rin takes Altan’s hand and pledges to follow him.