Celaena returns to Elena’s tomb after killing Baba Yellowlegs. Mort calls her “Witch Slayer” and warns that the wounds Yellowlegs left near Celaena’s collarbone are not ordinary marks. Because Baba Yellowlegs was a clan matron tied to the Ironteeth Alliance, Mort fears the Yellowlegs, Blackbeaks, and Bluebloods may seek answers or revenge.

Celaena spends time studying the riddle in the tomb and thinking over what Yellowlegs revealed about Wyrdkeys and Wyrdgates. The possibility that the king possesses even one Wyrdkey frightens Celaena, but it also gives her a possible explanation for the king’s power and a new direction for her investigation.

Celaena concludes that the library catacombs may hold the answers she needs, especially through The Walking Dead, the book that could help her find an unlocking spell. Abandoning her plan to nap, Celaena returns for Damaris and as many ancient blades as she can carry, preparing for danger.

Meanwhile, Chaol goes to Celaena’s rooms despite knowing his visit may provoke another confrontation. Celaena is absent, and Chaol notices papers covered in strange symbols like the mark he once saw burning on Celaena’s forehead. While searching the desk, Chaol finds Celaena’s will, signed two days before Nehemia’s death, leaving everything she owns to him and asking only that he consider giving some to Philippa.

Celaena catches Chaol reading the will and coldly says she will not change it. Chaol realizes the bequest was not merely generous: Celaena understood his fear of losing his position and being forced back to Anielle and his father’s money. He also concludes that because her assets would go to the king if she died a traitor, the will suggests she has no plan to betray Adarlan, seek Aelin Galathynius, or reclaim a Terrasen title.

Celaena orders Chaol out of her chambers and slams a door behind her. Chaol leaves shaken by his discovery and by his sense that he has been wrong about her again; before reaching his room, he breaks down sobbing in an empty broom closet.