Elide hides in a secret compartment beneath a carnival wagon after four winged ilken descend on the camp. Cramped, terrified, and certain that she has brought danger to the performers, she waits through screams and silence, fearing that Lorcan and everyone else may be dead.

When Elide decides she must flee under cover of darkness, Lorcan reveals himself alive in the wagon, covered in black ilken blood. Lorcan has killed the attackers and learned enough from a surviving ilken to know Elide is Elide Lochan, rightful Lady of Perranth, and that Vernon is not merely a Morath commander but Erawan’s right hand.

Lorcan confronts Elide for lying, arguing that her identity makes her a valuable hostage who could be used against Aelin. Elide counters that Lorcan has also hidden the truth and that she deliberately let Lorcan underestimate her as a frightened, helpless human. When Lorcan suggests she could be a way into Morath, Elide warns that she would kill herself before being returned there.

Lorcan asks what object Elide carries that makes Morath hunt her. Elide says it is a gift for Celaena Sardothien from an imprisoned woman in Morath, payment for a past kindness, but refuses to show it to Lorcan. Lorcan realizes he could steal it, yet decides that taking from Elide after all she has endured would cross a line he does not want to cross.

Elide then tells Lorcan the truth of her past: her mother Marion died buying Aelin time to escape, Vernon stole Perranth after her father’s execution, imprisoned Elide for ten years, denied her proper healing, shackled her, and later dragged her to Morath as a servant. Elide says she intends to find Aelin and help however she can, if only to prevent another girl from suffering as she did.

In return, Lorcan reveals that he is over five hundred years old, blood-sworn to Queen Maeve, her second-in-command, and a wielder of death-like magic. Lorcan says he came without Maeve’s permission and may be hunted for it. The two recognize that neither has family or friends, and after Lorcan says Nik and Ombriel will keep their secrets, Elide leaves the wagon with dignity while Lorcan questions what he is doing.