Chaol questions Nehemia after learning that Celaena was only eight when her parents were murdered during Adarlan’s conquest of Terrasen. Nehemia refuses to explain how she knows about Celaena’s past, saying some truths are heard “with your heart.” Chaol notices the strange symbols in Nehemia’s book and remains troubled by the secrets around both women, the king’s surveillance of Nehemia, and the unexplained threat against the princess.

Nehemia tells Chaol that Celaena will not return until after nightfall because she likely cannot bear daylight in Rifthold or the castle on this date. Chaol understands that the castle belongs to the man whose forces probably destroyed Celaena’s family, and he spends the morning running alone through the misty game park until exhaustion takes over.

In the foothills above Rifthold, Celaena walks through a silent forest with Fleetfoot. Sitting on a cold boulder, Celaena remembers the previous year’s anniversary in Endovier, when a dream of the stag and ravine left her with a cold, hopeless rage that she had falsely described to Dorian and Chaol as simply “snapping.”

The chapter shifts into Celaena’s memory of Endovier. After an overseer brutalizes a woman, Celaena kills him with a pickax, frees herself from the chain gang, and stalks through the mines to murder the four overseers who had raped and killed a young Eyllwe woman. Celaena deliberately uses the pickax so the men will understand the cruelty of Endovier, while the enslaved people watch in silent recognition that Celaena is not trying to escape.

Celaena then fights her way toward the wall, killing guards and sentries while hoping to cause enough carnage that the guards will defy the king’s order to keep Celaena alive and instead execute her. Arrows wound but do not kill Celaena, and when Celaena reaches the gate, forty guards surround her. Celaena laughs, attacks one last time, and collapses with her fingers barely an inch from the wall.

After midnight, Celaena returns to her rooms hollow and exhausted, where Chaol has waited with chocolate cake. Celaena says nothing can help, but Chaol insists on keeping Celaena company. The gesture softens Celaena, and Chaol embraces her; the comfort turns charged with mutual desire, but Celaena’s admission that she feels both ashamed and grateful for wanting Chaol makes Chaol step back, recognizing that both of them still face deep emotional obstacles.