Celaena enters the royal library armed and uneasy after seeing a frightening creature there earlier. Wanting to understand whether the creature, the Wyrdmark book from Davis’s office, and the king’s plans are connected, she searches the library’s perimeter for hidden passages or signs of what the creature had been seeking.

As Celaena moves deeper into the neglected stacks, she marks her route with chalk and pushes through fear, silence, and memories of earlier Wyrdmark research with Chaol. After hours of searching the uneven back wall, Celaena notices a dark red tapestry that seems deliberately out of place and finds a secret door behind it.

Meanwhile, Dorian wakes from a nightmare in an unnaturally cold room. Dorian’s breath clouds in the air, and he thinks he sees a ring of frost where he had been lying, but the evidence vanishes when he looks again. Dorian dismisses it as a draft and a bad dream brought on by worry over Celaena’s recent poisoning, though the moment suggests something strange is happening to him.

Celaena opens the secret door and descends a spiral stairway lit by an old oil channel. Below the library, Celaena finds ancient corridors packed with decaying records, maps, receipts, and forgotten documents. A second stairway leads still deeper, its walls carved with images of Fae, proving the space is ancient and likely unknown to the king, who would have destroyed such imagery.

At the bottom, Celaena finds a single solid iron door with no keyhole. Remembering that iron resists magic, Celaena suspects the door was built either to keep magic out or to imprison something within. The Eye of Elena warms, and when Celaena slides a dagger beneath the door to look through its reflection, green-gold eyes flash in the darkness beyond.

Celaena retreats, tells herself the eyes belonged to a rat or small animal, and decides not to force the door open yet. Still, the amulet’s reaction and the door’s ancient construction convince Celaena that important answers lie behind it, possibly connected to Wyrdmarks, and that she must return when better prepared.