Two weeks after Fortos, Diem feels hopeful because she has decided to take over Auralie’s palace-healer duties. Maura reluctantly accepts, tutors Diem in treating the Descended, and teaches her that godstone, a Kindred-made material harmless to mortals, is lethally toxic to Descended. Diem recognizes that this information, along with the hidden garden entrance to the palace, would interest Henri’s rebels if Diem chooses to help them.

On Diem and Maura’s first official visit, they approach the palace through the front entrance and encounter Sorae, the realm’s gryvern. Sorae flies down, unnerving Maura, but Diem senses curiosity rather than aggression and nearly touches the creature before a guard orders Sorae back. The guard explains Sorae has been volatile since the King became ill.

Inside, palace guards interrogate Maura and Diem, then demand that Diem surrender her weapons. When one guard intentionally touches Diem while reaching for her blade, Diem subdues him, prompting the other guards to draw swords and seize Maura. Prince Luther arrives, orders everyone to stand down, and forces the offending guard to apologize before torturing him with light-and-shadow magic as punishment. Luther allows Diem to keep her weapons under his escort but warns that using them in the palace will bring severe consequences.

Luther escorts Diem and Maura to examine the two young boys injured in the roof collapse. The boys’ mothers, Luther’s cousins, react with suspicion and disdain toward Diem, especially because she is armed and mortal. Diem surrenders most of her weapons to ease the younger child’s fear, then treats the older boy with warmth and jokes while Maura checks the younger one’s broken bones.

After Diem makes a harmless joke that one mother misreads, the woman insults mortals and poor children. Diem angrily confronts her, describing hunger, cold, and death in Mortal City while the palace overflows with wealth. Luther pulls the woman away, then privately apologizes to Diem and claims Auralie was supposed to warn him if conditions in Mortal City were that bad. Diem rejects his claim of concern and tells him every mortal family is in need.

Luther also raises concern about Princess Lilian’s closeness with Diem’s brother Teller, warning that mortal-Descended relationships can become dangerous. Diem argues that forbidding the relationship would only push the pair together and insists Teller is thoughtful enough to be trusted. Their argument turns physically charged when Luther catches Diem’s hand, and Maura and Luther’s cousins catch them standing close. Diem leaves unsettled, while Maura later teasingly suggests the disastrous visit went well.