Worm takes Dior from the bathhouse to a grand wardrobe and orders Dior into the finery of Niamh á Maergenn, the former Duchess of Ossway. Dior explains that after seeing a girl named Violetta Tremaine brutalized and killed, Dior cut her hair and lived as a boy, so Dior does not know how to dress herself in noblewomen’s clothes. As Worm prepares Dior, Dior learns that Nikita Dyvok destroyed Niamh á Maergenn, while most of Niamh’s family died in war or conquest.

Worm transforms Dior with powder, paint, jewels, corset, gown, heels, and wig. Dior feels exposed rather than empowered, but Worm tells Dior that beauty can serve as a weapon in Lilidh’s court and may help protect Dior from Nikita. Worm then leads Dior through Dún Maergenn, where branded young guards flirt with Dior before Dior notices Nikita’s mark on their hands.

In Lilidh Dyvok’s chambers, Dior sees the aftermath of Nikita’s massacre: the young prisoners brought from Aveléne have been slaughtered, mutilated, and left for use as food. Lilidh humiliates Worm for arriving late, then orders Worm to carry the corpses away for the evening meal. Dior also recognizes Isla, alive but forced into service, and sees the brutality of the Dyvok household more clearly.

Lilidh inspects Dior and questions Dior’s origins, pressing Dior to call her Mistress. Lilidh tells Dior that the answer to a cruel world is not fear but becoming feared, and Dior feels the pull of Lilidh’s blood already in her veins. Lilidh then brings Dior to a balcony overlooking an auction where the surviving refugees are being sold to vampires for nights of service to Nikita, while the old and weak are being prepared as food and children, including Mila, wait below.

Lilidh justifies the auction by comparing humans to livestock and predators’ prey, then questions Dior about the Forever King, Celene, and the name Esani. Dior admits Celene is Gabriel’s sister but lies that Dior does not know Esani. Lilidh uses the Whip to force Dior to kneel and drink a second time from a cut in Lilidh’s thigh, leaving Dior only one drop from thrallhood; Lilidh promises that Dior will dream of her and that tomorrow Lilidh will have the truth.

Worm returns Dior to the dungeon and warns Dior not to fight if Nikita comes in the night. Alone with Celene’s blood-moth fragment, Dior asks whether Gabriel truly fell at Cairnhaem or whether Celene caused it; Celene’s fragment denies the accusation, though Jean-François interrupts the narration to accuse Celene of lying. Dior decides Dior must escape that night before Lilidh enslaves her, and Celene’s fragment spells out a route through the sewer. When the fragment asks about the lock, Dior reveals that Dior has stolen a hairpin that can help her break out.