At Second Watch, Lin goes to the House of Women, where Chana Dorin demands to hear about Lin’s meeting with the Maharam. Chana rejects the Maharam’s suggestion that Lin avoid the Sanhedrin test, insisting that Lin is not a liar and that her claim as the Goddess Returned can still bring good to the Ashkar. Lin is moved but burdened by guilt, because the belief in her rests partly on her secret knowledge of the burning ships, which she learned through the Ragpicker King’s world.

On the way to Mariam’s room, Lin reflects on Aram as an imagined homeland and wonders whether she, like the Maharam, cannot truly picture leaving Castellane. Lin pins on her Arkhe brooch, whose Source-Stone remains dark despite her studies. With Mariam, Lin discusses Antonetta’s coming engagement party and reluctantly agrees to let Mariam help dress her for the Hill, partly because Mariam argues that Lin now represents the Ashkar’s strength and future.

Lin then performs her regular healing on Mariam. Drawing on her own life energy, Lin uses will and remembered teachings about the Word to see the language of Mariam’s illness and force out its dark, smoky manifestation. Mariam immediately feels better, but Lin’s palm is burned from the effort, and Lin is frustrated because the healing is temporary; without learning how to store power in the Arkhe, Lin cannot fully cure Mariam without risking her own life.

Meanwhile, Ji-An drives Kel, Jerrod, and Merren in pursuit of Raimon, the Gray Serpent, after he leaves the Caravel in Montfaucon’s carriage. They follow him through Castellane to his house on Ruta Taur. Kel and Jerrod climb the façade to spy through a window, then break in noisily; Raimon flees downstairs, arms himself with a spear, and is finally subdued when Ji-An enters from behind and loops a metal chain around his throat.

Once Raimon is tied to a chair, Kel pressures him with the threat of involving Legate Jolivet in the Shining Gallery investigation. Raimon admits that a group of nobles hired him to gather ex-Tully fighters for what was supposed to be a frightening anti-Sarthian spectacle, not a massacre, and says Gremont was part of the hiring group but became nervous. Raimon denies that Montfaucon planned it, explaining that Montfaucon served only as protection after the massacre made Raimon a loose end. Just as Raimon names his contact as a woman calling herself Magali, a crossbow bolt with black-feathered fletchings kills him through the window.

Recognizing the bolt as matching the one that killed Luisa, Kel races outside and climbs to the likely firing position. On the roof, the Dark Assassin ambushes and pins Kel down. The assassin warns Kel to stop following, calls him Sword Catcher, shows knowledge of Kel’s bond with Conor, says Kel and Conor’s fates are intertwined, and reveals that Kel is alive only because the assassin has a use for him before escaping across the rooftops.