Chapter 56 — Isla

Isla confronts Lark about the starstick, realizing sharing its location would not help Lark. When Isla asks Lark’s price, Lark demands Cronan’s heart and, more tangibly, the return of her feather—the object storing her abilities—which Lark senses is in Grim’s possession. Isla promises to retrieve it.

Hours later, Grim escorts Isla through the dungeon, keeping his distance and reminding her of his erased memories. Isla resolves to recreate their bond if it cannot be restored. She recalls how both she and Grim once broke free of their prisons together and believes they can fall in love again.

Grim confronts Isla, accusing her of being his future murderer and rejecting her insistence that their love was real. Seeking answers to his missing past rather than reconciliation, Grim remains unmoved. He drags Isla into an unfamiliar room, orders others to “get her ready,” and leaves.

Five beautiful, starlit-skinned women with vacant expressions wordlessly usher Isla into a bath and begin washing and grooming her, ignoring Isla’s questions. After bathing, they style her hair and paint her face, then dress her in a revealing silk gown that exposes her skyres, clearly intending to display her.

Studying her altered, wan reflection, Isla reframes the attire as armor and the chamber as a battlefield. She commits to fighting not only for Grim but for her world, Oro’s struggle to defend it, those she has killed, and even the ruined realm around her. Aware Cronan believes he controls everything, Isla draws on her history of escaping cages and steels herself for what comes next.