Elspeth is submerged in dark, bottomless water, where the past presses into her until she experiences it as her own. The memory places Elspeth inside Taxus, the young Shepherd King, walking through a castle corridor with Taxus’s younger sister, Ayris.

Ayris notices a bruise under Taxus’s eye and assumes it came from training with Brutus. As the siblings approach gilded doors, a young guard with green eyes and bruises of his own wishes Taxus luck, prompting Ayris to dismiss him under her breath.

The doors open into a cathedral filled with colored light from stained glass. Taxus takes the seat of Taxus’s late father, a throne shaped from old, bent trees, while the assembled court hails Taxus as the Shepherd King.

The memory breaks when an oily voice calls Elspeth’s name from the darkness. Elspeth tries to swim toward the voice, but the surrounding water and memories hold Elspeth in place, leaving Elspeth unable to move, speak, or escape.