Elide watches Manon read a letter from a trembling messenger. While pretending not to study Manon too closely, Elide thinks about the food and water she has hidden under her pallet and plans to escape Morath on the next supply wagon.

Manon tells Elide that Manon and the Thirteen will leave in three days for a forest in the North and be gone at least two days. Manon advises Elide to lie low during that absence, while Elide privately sees the timing as her chance to flee.

Three days later, Manon prepares for the mission. The Blackbeak Matron’s letter ignores Manon’s reports about witches being bred and slaughtered, making Manon suspect the messages never reached her grandmother. The Thirteen are ordered to Oakwald Forest in Adarlan to secure the area before the King of Adarlan arrives to inspect the weapon the Matron has been building and to inspect Manon as well.

Manon views the meeting as a waste but hopes it will let her identify the man ordering atrocities against witches and then tell her grandmother directly. Tensions within the Thirteen remain unresolved: Asterin will not speak to Manon, no one discusses the Valg prince the duke sent as a test, and Manon still refuses to choose a coven to be sacrificed. Seeing Morath’s expanding armies and hearing reports of new winged horrors, Manon launches with Abraxos and the Thirteen.

The chapter shifts to Kaltain, who reflects on being collared, possessed by a Valg prince, and abused. Kaltain hid inside herself until the prince forgot her, then used the shadowfire growing from her old magic and the thing in her arm to consume the demon piece by piece. Though she still pretends obedience, Kaltain has reclaimed herself and now waits for a purpose, naming herself Death, devourer of worlds.