Dorian reaches Morath in animal form, circling the black towers as a crow among the flocks already around the fortress. He observes vast numbers of troops, Ironteeth witches, wyverns, forges, and campfires, realizing Morath still holds an enormous force despite the war in the north. Because bringing the two Wyrdkeys inside would be reckless, Dorian has buried them in shale ten miles away and hopes they are beyond Erawan’s notice.

Using information Manon once gave Aelin, Dorian enters through a servants’ door by shifting from crow to mouse. The small form heightens Dorian’s senses and lets him slip beneath the door into Morath, but it also makes the fortress dangerous and physically difficult to cross. Dorian keeps to shadows, avoids servants and guards, and heads toward Erawan’s tower, intending to find the Valg king and perhaps avenge Sorscha and his own enslavement.

Before Dorian can reach the tower, the atmosphere changes: the halls fall unnaturally still, and even a guard reacts to the disturbance. A fleeing servant’s nervous remark suggests something ominous is happening, but not that Dorian has been discovered. Rather than press blindly forward, Dorian decides to gather information in the kitchens, where he expects frightened servants to talk.

In the kitchens, Dorian overhears servants who have returned shaken from the council room. Their relief at escaping before unnamed arrivals appear suggests that a dangerous meeting is imminent. Dorian connects this to Manon’s description of Erawan’s preferred meeting place and chooses to go there, knowing it is foolish but driven by the need to see the creature who destroyed so much.

Dorian follows the growing silence to the council room and slips inside behind a hooded figure. He sees Erawan in a beautiful golden-haired body rather than Perrington’s form and feels the same corrupt power that once possessed him. Dorian prepares to attack, hoping to strike first, shift back, and kill Erawan with Damaris.

The plan collapses when the hooded visitor reveals herself as a dark-haired Fae female. Erawan greets her without fear and names her Maeve, revealing that the Valg king and the queen of the Fae are meeting in Morath. Dorian abandons thoughts of immediate assassination as the unexpected alliance or negotiation dramatically raises the stakes.