Inside the windowless bell tower, thousands of black scorpions pour over Kingfisher and Carrion as Vorath Shah laughs. Kingfisher recognizes the swarm as Joshin, an ancient desert demon from stories his mother once read to him, and remembers that Joshin cannot endure light. Carrion is pinned by the old trap in the floor, so Kingfisher chooses not to flee; instead, Kingfisher enters the demon trap to save Carrion.

Kingfisher crosses the room while being repeatedly stung and tries to break the magically sealed wall with his shadow magic. The wall resists him, and the scorpions begin merging into Joshin’s larger, half-formed body. As the venom takes hold, Kingfisher sees a hallucination of his mother, but he recognizes the vision as the demon’s “dark dream” and resists its attempt to weaken him.

Kingfisher notices that his blood makes the wall’s magic react, so Kingfisher draws the rune for “break” in blood. The ward finally splinters, and Kingfisher smashes open the wall, letting the light of the twin suns flood the room. Joshin burns and begins to collapse, but the demon tries to send scorpions into Zilvaren to infect the city with nightmares.

While Kingfisher opens the tower to more light, Vorath takes Carrion hostage. Carrion, poisoned but determined, fights back and breaks Vorath’s neck. Kingfisher is distracted long enough for Joshin to sting him deeply in the leg, worsening the venom’s effect and threatening to trap Kingfisher and Carrion in recurring nightmares for the rest of their lives.

Kingfisher stops Carrion from killing Joshin outright because they need freely given venom to create an anti-venom. Kingfisher bargains with the demon: Joshin’s life in exchange for venom, a secret, and a promise of release. Kingfisher then exploits the terms by boxing one small scorpion fragment of Joshin, keeping the demon technically alive while preparing to destroy the main body.

Forced to honor the bargain, Joshin reveals that to kill a queen, Kingfisher must go to the darkest place and make a far costlier deal with a more dangerous beast. Kingfisher burns Joshin’s main form and the scattered scorpions, leaving only the boxed scorpion alive. Carrion, horrified by the spectacle and the poison to come, realizes the nightmare has barely begun.