Cultists drag Murtagh through the halls to a stone chamber containing a brazier and a manacled wooden slab. The room resembles the Hall of the Soothsayer, where Galbatorix once forced Murtagh to torture Nasuada, and the recognition briefly burns through the vorgethan clouding Murtagh’s mind. Murtagh resists violently, bites one captor, is slammed onto the table, shackled, and again fails to use magic.

Bachel enters wearing black ceremonial robes, a skull-adorned headdress, clawed jewelry, and a mask that gives Bachel a draconic, supernatural presence. Murtagh senses an inhuman force behind the display and connects the mask to the strange masks Captain Wren kept, suggesting a link between Wren and the Draumar. The mask also recalls Galbatorix making Murtagh wear a half mask while torturing Nasuada, deepening Murtagh’s revulsion.

Bachel tells Murtagh that Bachel wants Murtagh to bow, serve Bachel and Azlagûr, and become a king who will help forge a violent new future. Murtagh refuses, and Bachel identifies the Draumar as devotees of Azlagûr the Devourer, Firstborn, and Dreamer, a sleeping being whose dreams shape the waking world. Bachel claims the Draumar are Azlagûr’s instruments and will prepare the world for Azlagûr’s arrival.

When Murtagh still refuses, Bachel attacks with onyx claws. Murtagh’s wards spark and drain Murtagh’s depleted strength until the spells fail to protect him, allowing Bachel’s claws to pierce Murtagh’s chest. Bachel then invades Murtagh’s mind, but Murtagh uses a defensive technique learned through Galbatorix’s abuse: instead of resisting directly, Murtagh lets Bachel’s consciousness flow around Murtagh’s thoughts and continually shifts attention to avoid capture.

Bachel escalates the torture, causing intense pain while arguing that Murtagh will be useful either sane or mad. Murtagh stalls by asking whether Azlagûr speaks to Bachel, and Bachel explains that Azlagûr communicates through dreams, which Bachel interprets as Speaker for the Draumar. Bachel declares the cult’s purpose: to destroy the present era and remake the world through fire and blood; as Bachel resumes torturing Murtagh, Murtagh feels Thorn’s matching agony through their bond and suffers more because Murtagh cannot help Thorn.