Celaena enters a crowded riverfront masquerade with Archer, disguised in a white swan-themed gown and mask while Archer dresses as a wolf. The masks help conceal Celaena from former acquaintances, including Madame Clarisse, though the sight of Clarisse and the courtesan world unsettles Celaena. Archer explains that the host, Davis, is a longtime client whose recent paranoia and secret meetings make Archer suspect Davis is important to the rebel-linked group.

Archer says Davis and other wealthy men speak against the king and have rescued people from the king’s gallows, but Archer doubts their loyalty to Aelin Galathynius is sincere. Celaena concludes that Davis and the others may want Aelin as a puppet queen who would owe them for supplies and support. Because Davis may know more about the king’s enemies and informants, Celaena asks Archer to get her into Davis’s office.

Archer escorts Celaena upstairs under the cover of flirtation and picks the lock to Davis’s study before leaving her to search. Celaena finds ordinary papers at first, then discovers a book marked with a Wyrdmark and filled with more Wyrdmarks and an unknown language. Inside the back cover, Celaena memorizes the phrase, It is only with the eye that one can see rightly. The discovery alarms her because Wyrdmarks are supposedly lost, forbidden knowledge, and she plans to ask Nehemia about it.

Before Celaena can escape, Davis enters the office. Celaena pretends to be a weeping guest whose betrothed abandoned her, but Davis realizes no housekeeper could have let her into the locked study. Davis attacks with a dagger, cutting Celaena’s forearm. Celaena disables him briefly, but Davis reveals that the blade was coated in gloriella, the same paralytic poison used when Celaena was captured after Sam’s death.

As the poison begins to weaken Celaena, Davis tries to overpower her and threatens to have guards take her somewhere private for torture. Celaena fights through the paralysis, grabs the dagger, and slashes Davis’s throat. Leaving him to die, she cuts up her gown for mobility, escapes through the window, evades the estate staff, and runs toward the glass castle as the gloriella spreads.

Celaena steals a cloak to hide the blood and reaches the castle grounds, but she avoids the main entrance so no one will connect her to Davis’s death. Half-conscious, she enters through the barracks and makes her way to Chaol’s office. Covered in blood and losing control of her body, Celaena collapses before him and manages to whisper “Gloriella” before blacking out.