Five days after Azul’s demonstration, no new trials have been announced, and Celeste remains occupied trying to find enchanted gloves. Isla turns to her own task: gaining access to the guarded libraries that may help her and Celeste find the bondbreaker.

Isla spends several nights secretly observing the agora. By watching the market after dark, she learns its hidden routines, including which shop becomes a brothel, when stores really close, and how the late-night crowd moves after the Sunlings leave before dawn.

Her surveillance leads Isla to a Skyling barkeep who appears to sell something more valuable than alcohol. After tracking his habits, Isla waits inside his locked bar at closing time and confronts him, correctly identifying him as someone islanders visit for information.

The barkeep introduces himself as Juniper and refuses Isla’s gems and coins. Instead, Juniper demands a secret as payment. Though terrified of exposing anything that could get her killed, Isla offers a safer secret: she deliberately let King Oro win the first demonstration even though she believes she could have defeated him.

In exchange, Juniper tells Isla that Moon Isle has no guards during the full moon because the Moonling curse is then strongest and all Moonlings retreat into their castle. He says the next full moon falls on the twentieth day of the Centennial, one week away, giving Isla a possible opening to enter the Moon Isle library.

Isla resists asking for more information, knowing she cannot trust Juniper with too much of her plan. As she leaves, Juniper hints that he knows about missing clothing from the tailor, but Isla hides her alarm and turns the implication into a teasing promise of another secret later.