Before — Chapter 28

After Terra scolds Isla for recklessness and Poppy treats her sprained ankle, Terra intensifies non-weight training until Isla walks nearly normally. Grim waits until Isla is nearly healed, then arrives without crown or cape, wearing a charm that lets him travel at night despite Nightshade’s curse. He insists they seek a stolen sword, refusing to portal directly to avoid alerting it.

They boat across dark waters to a thieves’ base. Inside, Grim searches the upper floors while Isla scouts below. She is ambushed; training takes over and she disarms and fatally wounds one assailant, then kills another with thrown blades. A third attacker subdues her, leering, until Isla tackles him through a curtained window, and moonlight turns him to ash.

Grim reappears with a bound Nightshade and interrogates him about the sword. When the captive denies having it, Grim cuts off his hand and threatens more. Isla secures a promise of release in exchange for information; the man reveals a rogue thief, Viktor—always with a snake—stole the blade and has been seen near Creetan’s Crag.

Grim immediately slits the man’s throat, arguing Isla made the promise, not him, and calling the thief deserving of death. Isla, shaken by her first known kills and Grim’s execution, breaks down. Grim coldly tells her it gets easier, then says there will be a celebration on Creetan’s Crag in two weeks and that he will return.