Asar warns Mische not to look at the woman who materializes in Alarus’s temple, but Mische is transfixed by the entity’s beautiful, decayed, shifting form. The woman is not a wraith; her hunger feels deeper and more deliberate. She coils around Asar with intimate menace, and Asar, visibly terrified despite his control, orders Mische to run.

Mische instinctively moves toward Asar, but Elias grabs Mische and drags her away through the temple corridors. As Elias, Mische, and Chandra flee, the temple’s calm breathing turns into panicked gasps, and the maze-like halls separate them. Alone, Mische realizes the temple is manipulating fear and that the maze itself is the test.

Mische searches the walls and finds hidden glyphs of Atroxus beneath the smooth ivory. Though the sun feels distant and her magic burns her, Mische kindles fire into the glyphs, revealing a lit path through the maze. Mische follows the line of fire to a circular room with a sealed door, where the floor is covered with drained, barely living wraiths who have been preyed upon by something worse than souleaters.

The shadow-woman appears and wraps herself around Mische, craving warmth, light, love, and life. Mische tries to humanize the woman by asking her name, but the woman instead studies Mische’s burns and senses Mische’s connection to Asar. When Asar arrives, the woman taunts Asar and Mische, implying a painful shared past with Asar and warning that Asar will eventually ruin Mische too.

Asar secretly uses the anchor to call the others back and tells Mische through their mental link that the woman cannot pass through the door. Asar draws the woman away from Mische by pleading with her and offering himself, buying time for Mische, Elias, and Chandra. Chandra adds her light to Mische’s, and Asar sends Mische shadow magic, allowing Mische to unlock the sealed door marked by Alarus and overlaid with Atroxus’s sun.

The door vanishes to reveal spiral stairs as the temple convulses and blood pours from the ceiling. Chandra, Elias, and Luce escape through the opening, but Mische looks back and sees Asar restraining the screaming woman with light and shadow. Asar releases the woman at the last moment and dives through the doorway; Mische pulls Asar in, and they tumble down the stairs as the door slams shut behind them.