Inej breaks free from the hand that tried to shove her into the silo and pulls herself back onto the roof. She finds a stranger waiting: Dunyasha, who calls herself the White Blade and claims training from the Sages of Ahmrat Jen. Dunyasha treats their meeting as fated, then draws knives and attacks.

Dunyasha’s speed and training immediately unsettle Inej. Inej fights by instinct and street-learned skill, but Dunyasha shifts styles effortlessly and taunts Inej about fear, death, and her past at the Menagerie. Inej realizes Dunyasha is better trained and also enjoys killing in a way Inej never has.

Unable to win by matching Dunyasha directly, Inej changes the field of the fight. Inej leaps onto the wire between the silos, hoping to use her own balance and knowledge of Ketterdam to escape. Dunyasha follows onto the wire and begins throwing spiked metal stars, wounding Inej in the calf, thigh, shoulder, shin, and forearm.

While Inej hears sounds of fighting below and worries about Nina and the others, Dunyasha reveals that Pekka Rollins—not Jan Van Eck—is paying her expenses. The news shakes Inej because it suggests Pekka may have targeted the whole crew. Inej tries to retreat toward the next silo so she can reach Nina and vanish into the city’s streets and canals.

Before Inej can reach safety, Dunyasha leaves the wire and moves to the magnet anchoring it. Inej understands too late what Dunyasha intends. As Inej whispers for her Saints to protect her, the line goes slack and Inej falls from the high wire.