Nina moves through West Stave and East Stave in disguise, trying not to attract attention in an ugly wig and plain gown. Following Kaz's chosen route, she reaches the fourth and final gambling establishment where she must complete her part of the plan.

Nina carries a glass case filled with necrotic cells she harvested from a corpse in the morgue. Using her altered Grisha power, she opens the case while placing a bet and brushes the pouch against the wheel broker, causing blackened dead tissue to spread across the broker's fingers, sleeve, neck, and lip.

As customers panic, Nina spreads the cells to a woman named Olena and then allows the infection to pass to the pit boss when the pit boss touches the broker. The visible marks create the impression of a terrifying disease, and fear overtakes the gambling floor as patrons overturn tables, grab chips, and rush for the exits.

Nina escapes with the fleeing crowd into the street, where the plague siren begins to wail over Ketterdam. The sound triggers immediate panic because the city remembers the devastation of the Queen's Lady Plague, and plague law requires citizens to go home while stadwatch officers withdraw to separate stations.

Nina recognizes that Kaz's plan has worked: the false outbreak will make the city abandon blockades, checkpoints, and barricades. Although Nina knows no one is truly infected and the necrotic flesh will not spread beyond what she grafted, the chaos she creates unnerves and exhilarates her.

As Nina moves east through the panicked city, she reflects on her strange new power over corpses, bones, and dying cells. Instead of feeling only shame or fear, Nina feels strong for the first time in a long while; her parem craving recedes, and she begins to accept that death connects the world as surely as life does.