Jolivet brings Lin through a celebration-filled Castellane to Marivent, where Prince Conor is being dressed by servants instead of appearing publicly at the docks. Conor deliberately unsettles Lin, then dismisses the servants and reveals that he has used Kel to stand in for him because Marivent is unusually empty. When Lin asks what help Conor wants, Conor gives Lin a royal order: she must help him and must not tell the Exilarch.

At the harbor, Kel, disguised as Conor, rides with Princess Anjelica on her elephant, Sedai, as the crowds welcome their future queen with flowers and cheers. Kel tries to be gracious and politically careful, but Anjelica speaks directly about rumors that Conor brings ill fortune and about Luisa's death. Kel answers frankly that Luisa was murdered by someone trying to provoke war with Sarthe.

Anjelica then exposes Kel's mistake: she offered him a walnut, knowing Conor cannot tolerate walnuts, and Kel ate it without reaction. Because those who know Kel's true identity can see through the magic, Anjelica recognizes him as the Sword Catcher and tells him there is no point in lying to her.

Back in Marivent, Jolivet leads Lin and Conor through underground passages and into a tower room filled with astronomical instruments, star charts, papers, and broken glass. There Conor reveals Lin's patient: King Markus Aurelian, who sits nearly motionless, vacant, and silent. Conor explains that only a few people know the full truth of the King's condition and that Conor has forged the King's letters with Bensimon's help to hide the crisis from the Charter Families, ambassadors, and hostile powers.

King Markus suddenly lashes out at Conor, who restrains him and calms him in Malgasi. Lin examines the King and finds his body largely healthy, suggesting the damage may be mental, but Conor rejects simple shock as the explanation. Conor tells Lin that the King once had a companion named Fausten, now executed, who supplied the King with a dark-brown brew that the King called medicine; Conor gives Lin the last flask and orders her to identify whether it is medicine, poison, or something else.

After Conor leaves to arrange Lin's carriage, Lin is briefly alone with the King. King Markus abruptly speaks a repeated sentence in an unknown language, saying, Hollazekyer di niellem pu nag, again and again. Disturbed by his sudden speech and his inability to respond to her, Lin flees the tower.