At Prince Hollin’s lavish birthday ball, Chaol watches the guests from an alcove while Celaena keeps guard outside in the winter cold. Chaol notices Celaena has abandoned her post and follows her into the frosted garden, expecting trouble or disobedience.

Instead, Chaol finds Celaena waltzing alone to the music drifting from the ballroom. Embarrassed and irritated, Celaena explains that she is cold, bored, and briefly wanted to forget her duties and feel like an ordinary girl. Chaol considers reprimanding her, but Celaena’s bitterness softens him.

Chaol asks Celaena to dance. Although Celaena reminds him that he once refused her at Yulemas because dancing together was dangerous, Chaol says things are different now. Celaena accepts, and the two share an intense, wordless waltz that makes their connection undeniable. Celaena realizes that, after years of loss and displacement, Chaol feels like home.

Inside the ballroom, Dorian sees Chaol and Celaena dancing. Though the sight affects him, Dorian has already decided to move on. Nehemia joins him at the window and warns him not to interfere, explaining that Dorian and Nehemia carry royal burdens Celaena and Chaol cannot understand.

Nehemia then reveals that Roland told her the king has approved Councilman Mullison’s plan to expand Calaculla’s labor camp. Roland tried to pressure Nehemia into gaining her father’s support, and a council vote is scheduled for the next day. Nehemia urges Dorian to oppose the expansion, but Dorian refuses, fearing the political consequences and the danger of openly challenging his father.

Nehemia challenges Dorian’s moral hesitation by invoking Celaena’s suffering and the thousands still enslaved in Endovier and Calaculla. Before leaving, Nehemia tells Dorian that he has more power than he realizes, that it sleeps inside him, and that she will help when it awakens. Dorian is left disturbed, sensing something ancient within himself stir in response.