With help arranged through Kashin, Chaol reaches the khagan’s sealed trade meeting and finds familiar guards outside, including Shen and Hashim. Rather than ask for a formal audience with Urus, Chaol claims he has come to speak with the foreign trade vizier about firelances. Chaol uses Captain Rolfe’s large orders for Terrasen to show the khagan how much money the war could bring Antica, then offers to double Aelin’s order using the treasure he brought from Adarlan.

The maneuver forces the khagan to dismiss the viziers and speak privately with Chaol. Urus recognizes Chaol’s tactic as manipulation and warns that Morath’s unified war machine cannot be defeated by reacting to Perrington’s moves. Chaol presses for the khagan’s armies, then escalates by saying the khagan’s daughter might have been murdered and that Perrington’s agents may already be influencing Antica. Urus coldly dismisses Chaol.

When Shen begins wheeling Chaol from the room under orders, Chaol resists the humiliation and tries desperately to make his body stand. Chaol warns that Morath will eventually come for Antica too, and he compares the khagan’s hesitation to Chaol’s own past failure to choose the right side soon enough. Urus forbids Chaol from entering his meetings again, and Chaol is escorted out while his body still refuses to obey.

Later, Yrene arrives for healing work after sending Kadja away and notices Chaol’s unusually harsh mood. Chaol tells Yrene that the khagan had him removed and admits he wanted to kneel and beg but could not. When Chaol says he wants to fight and die shoulder-to-shoulder with his men, Yrene, alarmed and angry, decides the despair cannot be allowed to ruin his progress and orders him to get up.

Yrene insists Chaol’s body should now be capable of standing, but the demand turns into a brutal argument. Chaol lashes out over Kashin, Nesryn, and Yrene’s feelings, while Yrene accuses Chaol of using Nesryn’s absence as a shield against what Chaol feels for Yrene. Their anger widens into older wounds involving Aelin, Adarlan, Fenharrow, and what each of them has done with loss.

As Chaol pushes upward, Chaol wounds Yrene by comparing Yrene’s life after Fenharrow to another woman who turned grief into vengeance and asking what Yrene has done. At that exact moment, Chaol stands, but the victory is poisoned by the cruelty of his words. Yrene answers that her work saves lives and that Chaol is standing because of her skill, then retreats toward the door. Realizing he may lose Yrene as he has let others go, Chaol takes a step toward her.