The chapter shifts to the captive princess, who is imprisoned in an iron box with an iron mask and chains that suppress the fire in her blood. She can hear a river roaring around the small island where she has been hidden: a stone temple on a slab of rock amid rapids and falls.

The princess has lost track of time because her captors drugged her during travel and continue to cycle her through darkness, sleep, and torture. Her blood, screams, and broken bones blur together, but she refuses to give the dark queen the information being sought.

The princess reflects that her long life, once a gift, has become another curse. She is bound by an ancient debt to the gods, who only care that someone pays it; because a king might also offer himself in her place, the princess does not expect divine rescue and does not pray.

To endure, the princess repeats a story to herself: “Once upon a time, in a land long since burned to ash, there lived a young princess who loved her kingdom …” The story helps keep the princess from breaking when the queen’s hunter tortures her and when a massive white wolf is magically chained nearby and forced to watch.

The princess holds on to the memory of the prince of ice and wind, whose scent reminds her of pine, snow, and the kingdom she loved. The dark queen tries to use illusions, dreams, and the prince’s memory to unlock the princess’s mind, but the princess continues reciting the story, clinging to darkness and flame while enduring endless pain.