Murtagh enters the Fulsome Feast, a warm and crowded inn in Ceunon, and takes an open table near the fire while waiting for Sarros. Using the name Tornac, Murtagh orders a simple hot meal and weak ale, stays alert to the exits, and avoids drawing attention when two masons nearly sit with him. A troubadour’s song praises Eragon as Galbatorix’s sole conqueror, which angers Murtagh because Murtagh knows Eragon would have failed without him and Thorn.

While Murtagh eats, a crying girl named Essie Siglingsdaughter, the innkeeper’s daughter, sits across from him. Murtagh gently draws out her story: Hjordis, the daughter of the earl’s chief mason, pretended friendship, invited Essie to a Maddentide party, then threatened to make the masons boycott the Fulsome Feast unless Essie shoved her friend Carth into a horse trough. Essie obeyed, fled in shame, and now believes Carth and the other children will hate her.

Murtagh’s sympathy deepens because Essie’s mistreatment reminds him of being bullied in Galbatorix’s court before Tornac taught him to defend himself. When Essie admits she plans to run away with a caravan to Gil’ead and later visit the Beor Mountains, Murtagh tries to persuade her that leaving will not solve her problems and that her family would miss her. Essie insists she is the problem and that everything would improve if she disappeared.

Murtagh notices a severe scar running up Essie’s arm, and Essie says other children mock her for it. Murtagh tells Essie that a scar proves survival rather than brokenness, but Essie rejects the comfort. Essie claims the injury came from a pot of hot water falling on her, yet Murtagh suspects the explanation is incomplete and briefly considers confronting Sigling if Essie has been harmed at home.

Sarros finally arrives, accompanied by six rough guards whose concealed swords show that Sarros came prepared for violence. Murtagh allows Essie to remain at the table despite Sarros’s demand that she be sent away. Sarros produces a black, sulfur-smelling stone from a field of similar burnt-looking stones, confirming Murtagh’s fears about Umaroth’s warning that evil lurks where the ground turns black and brittle and the air smells of brimstone.

When Murtagh offers Sarros half his payment for the stone’s location, Sarros refuses the bargain and demands all of Murtagh’s coin under threat from his men. Essie notices the danger and seems about to cry out, but Sarros draws a thin knife and presses it to Essie’s throat, using the child as leverage against Murtagh.