Dorian spends the better part of a week shape-shifting through Morath as small animals and insects, listening for information and searching for the Wyrdkey. Erawan remains unaware of Dorian, while Maeve helps conceal him and reports with Dorian each night. Dorian learns that Maeve has brought in spiders to create bodies for Valg princesses, and he sees evidence that humans are being fed to those new horrors for battle.

Following a foul Valg stench deep beneath the keep, Dorian enters a hidden chamber below the dungeons. Inside, Dorian finds the broken sarcophagus that once held Erawan and shelves filled with Wyrdstone collars. The chamber triggers Dorian’s memories of being collared, Sorscha’s death, and his father’s role in freeing Erawan, overwhelming Dorian until Maeve drags Dorian out with her power.

Back in Maeve’s chamber, Dorian vomits and admits the collars affected him more than expected. Maeve explains that the collars cannot act without hosts, but the room itself is saturated with hatred and pain. Dorian challenges Maeve for giving spiders to Erawan despite knowing the terror of entrapment, and Maeve claims necessity forced her to prove loyalty.

Dorian presses Maeve for answers about Erawan, the Valg kings, the princesses, and Maeve’s own past. Maeve says Erawan creates horrors because he can, yet his brothers Orcus and Mantyx are worse. Maeve reveals she avoided bearing Orcus’s children as an act of rebellion, that Valg females are deadlier but harder to contain, and that she captured Aelin because Aelin would never willingly protect Maeve from Erawan.

Dorian concludes that the Wyrdkey must be in Erawan’s tower, a place Dorian cannot enter through shape-shifting because of the guards and sealed structure. Dorian asks Maeve to gain access by seducing Erawan. Maeve agrees, transforms her appearance, and goes to Erawan’s guarded tower with Dorian hidden nearby; when Erawan opens the door, Maeve says she has not come to discuss war, and Erawan orders the guards away.