After surviving the creature beneath the library, Celaena skips food, rest, and medical care to rush to the dungeon. Kaltain’s earlier claims that she was brought to the castle for another purpose now connect in Celaena’s mind with Dorian’s genealogy book: Kaltain’s Rompier line once had strong magic, much like Cain’s shamanic origins made him useful to the king’s dark plans.

Celaena finds Kaltain’s cell empty except for Celaena’s discarded cloak and signs of a struggle. A guard tells Celaena that Duke Perrington took Kaltain to Morath to become his wife. Celaena remembers Kaltain’s worsening headaches and ominous talk of wings, then links them to Roland’s headaches and his own departure for Morath, wondering whether Roland also went unwillingly.

As Celaena thinks back to the creature’s pain, human features, and relief at death, Celaena concludes that the king may be using Wyrdmarks and Wyrdkeys to twist living beings. Nehemia’s warning about wings in the Ferian Gap now seems connected to these experiments. Celaena realizes she must learn how many Wyrdkeys the king possesses and where the others might be.

The next night, unable to sleep, Celaena returns to the library catacomb door and confirms that the Wyrdmarked seal holds from both sides. She considers how unbelievable the truth would sound and recognizes that finding the Wyrdkeys requires solving the riddle, then somehow manipulating the king into letting Celaena leave long enough to search.

While wiping oily blood from the sealed door off her fingers, Celaena finds her scrap of notes reading “Ah! Time’s Rift!” and reconsiders the tomb’s strange reversed design. The backward trees, stars, and distorted inscription suggest that the obvious wording may conceal a reversed or altered meaning. Celaena concludes that only one being may be able to confirm whether her new interpretation is correct.