Ten months before the Emperor’s murder, during Harrowhark’s first days on the Mithraeum, Harrowhark is exhausted, hungry, and isolated after disgracing herself with Cytherea’s corpse. Harrowhark avoids communal meals and scavenges food from the kitchen, where Harrowhark sits down instead of taking the meal back to safety.

Ortus the First, the Saint of Duty, ambushes Harrowhark from behind and drives a rapier through Harrowhark’s chest, aiming for Harrowhark’s heart. Harrowhark survives by instinctively reshaping Harrowhark’s own ribs and cartilage to trap the blade, then claws Ortus the First with finger bones and creates skeletal constructs from a loose bone fragment.

Ortus the First proves overwhelmingly dangerous: pain does not slow Ortus the First, and Ortus the First destroys or drains Harrowhark’s constructs with sword, spear, and thanergy. When Harrowhark finally tries to flee inside a flexible bone framework, Ortus the First casually throws a spear through the defenses and wounds Harrowhark badly in the intestine.

Mercymorn arrives before Harrowhark dies and angrily stops Ortus the First, not out of tenderness but because seeing Ortus the First attack Harrowhark obligates Mercymorn to intervene. Mercymorn rapidly repairs Harrowhark’s wounds and manipulates Harrowhark’s hormones, giving Harrowhark an artificial calm while berating Ortus the First for endangering the Emperor’s plans before the Heralds arrive.

Ortus the First demands Harrowhark’s sword, which terrifies Harrowhark, but Mercymorn refuses and sends Ortus the First away. Afterward, Mercymorn says Ortus the First simply wants Harrowhark dead and calls Ortus the First the Emperor’s attack dog; when Harrowhark asks why Ortus the First wants Harrowhark dead, Mercymorn oddly responds, “Who?”