At the Black Mansion, Lin checks on Merren as Merren works on an altered remedy for her. Merren is physically healing from his shoulder wound but remains visibly unhappy after Jerrod’s departure. Lin, meanwhile, is distracted by Conor and by the royal invitation to the Solstice Ball that arrived at her door that morning.

Merren warns Lin that the remedy contains a dangerously heavy sedative dose, noting that Jerrod’s experience with poppy addicts might have helped if Jerrod were still there. Lin decides to remove the yellow poppy and replace it with morphea. Having settled the formulation, Lin announces that she is going to the Solstice Ball and jokes that she will take down the monarchy while she is there.

At the ball, Kel observes the masked nobles with deep suspicion, newly aware that some families may be conspiring against House Aurelian. Conor performs his public role well, greeting guests and presenting a polished image with Anjelica, though Kel sees their intimacy as staged. Falconet, Montfaucon, and Ciprian gossip cruelly about Artal Gremont’s apparent disappearance and Antonetta’s humiliation, angering Kel.

Benaset summons Kel under the pretext of rain, and Kel finds Conor waiting in an alcove. Conor asks Kel to trust him and exchange masks with him, also handing over his onyx rings. Though Conor refuses to explain immediately, Kel agrees, leaving Conor free to depart in Kel’s silver ram mask.

Lin arrives at Marivent in the rain but panics when she realizes she has forgotten a mask. Feeling out of place and ashamed, she flees the ballroom path and shelters in a folly near the cliffs. Conor, wearing Kel’s mask, finds her there after Benaset reports her arrival, and their tense argument turns into Lin asking why Conor invited her.

Conor admits that he invited Lin because he cannot bear being apart from her and feels whole only when she is with him. Lin responds by kissing him, and the encounter escalates into passionate intimacy. Afterward, Conor hears someone outside and anxiously says they cannot be seen together; Lin realizes the consequences for his engagement to Anjelica and the Kutani alliance, feels suddenly exposed and foolish, tells Conor not to touch her again, and runs into the rain.