After the feast ends, Bachel is carried away by Grieve’s order, and Alín leads Murtagh back through the dark temple. Murtagh asks whether Bachel has ever shaken the Vale of Dreams before, and Alín says it happened once long ago when a human woman named Uluthrek came to Nal Gorgoth and met with Bachel outside the village.

At Murtagh’s rooms, Murtagh presses Alín about the source of Bachel’s power. Alín insists the power belongs to the Speaker and comes from the Dreamer of Dreams. When Murtagh reaches out without thinking, Alín recoils in terror and pain, revealing that Bachel had her whipped for speaking too familiarly to Murtagh after the hunt.

Alone, Murtagh waits for a chance to sneak out. Restless and unable to stop thinking about the black sun, the looming dragon, Bachel’s threat, and Nasuada’s danger, Murtagh studies a coin bearing Nasuada’s face and reflects on the impossible choices Galbatorix forced upon Murtagh. Murtagh then composes a poem about fragile beauty surviving in darkness.

When Murtagh checks the courtyard, Murtagh finds seven guards instead of two, all wearing enchanted bird-skull amulets. A sleep spell fails against the amulets, so Murtagh adapts by hardening the air around the guards’ faces rather than targeting the guards directly. Murtagh and Thorn prevent the guards from raising an alarm, and the guards suffocate as Murtagh prepares to leave.

Although Thorn urges immediate escape, Murtagh insists they first investigate the cave, believing it may reveal Bachel’s secret. The pair sneak through the pine grove to the cavern, where Murtagh sees fresh blood on an altar. Inside, Thorn’s fear of enclosed spaces overwhelms him; despite wanting to follow, Thorn cannot go farther. Murtagh comforts Thorn, rejects Thorn’s shame, and promises to enter quickly alone before they leave Nal Gorgoth.