Auren turns to see Wick, a fae man. Nenet greets him warmly, revealing he is the leader of the Vulmin Dyrūnia—Dawn’s bird—an underground Turley loyalist network. He shows Auren a golden ring bearing the mark of a bird, their symbol.

Wick declares Auren’s return is a sign for them to rise up against the Carrick monarchy, which the Vulmin have undermined for years. He argues she is the symbol they need to mobilize their cause. Auren refuses, explaining she knows nothing about Annwyn’s politics and cannot lead a rebellion until she learns more. When Wick persists, she loses her temper, pointing out that the Vulmin failed to protect her and her parents. Though Wick offers to protect her now, Auren insists she can protect herself.

Feeling overwhelmed and used, Auren tells Nenet she wants to leave. As they walk away, Nenet defends Wick as a good, if blunt, leader, suggesting his presence is fated. Auren counters that it is merely coincidence.

At the cart, Nenet gives Auren a hairpin with the Vulmin symbol and muses that Auren’s arrival is meant to spark change. Auren looks at the sky, thinking only of Slade. When Nenet advises her to trust herself and not lose hope, Auren affirms that her hope is in finding Slade.

At night, Slade walks through West End in Derfort, Third Kingdom’s harbor city. The area is silent with death and fear after he rotted the crime streets, leaving buildings destroyed, corpses trapped in doorways, and flesh trader ships sinking in the harbor. A drunken man recognizes him as “King Rot.” Thinking of Auren, he spares the man.

Slade reflects on how Midas killed Auren’s owner, Zakir West, when she was a victim of human trafficking and created the painted saddles of Derfort to erase her existence. Slade killed the new crime lords who took over the flesh trade.

On the beach, Slade meets Judd, a member of his elite group of soldiers known as his Wrath, who tracked him to Derfort after hearing about the attack on Gallenreef Castle. Judd helped him destroy the streets where Auren was abused. Slade instructs Judd to take their captured package—Manu Ioana—to Osrik in Fourth Kingdom. He removed the rot from Manu, forcing him, conscious and bound, to witness the carnage.

When Judd asks if Slade can create a rip in reality to Annwyn, Slade confirms he’s still unable. Judd flies toward Fourth Kingdom while Slade wonders how Auren was smuggled from Annwyn to Orea as a child. He takes flight on Crest, consumed by fury.

After days of imprisonment, Malina watches fae troops march toward her kingdom from her locked tower room. In a rage, she knocks over her food tray and tries the door. Her ice magic erupts, shattering the metal doorknob. The fae twins Fassa and Friano arrive to fetch her, taunting her as they lead her through the ruined castle, now a fae military camp.

They bring her to a newly rebuilt throne room where a powerful fae sits on a stone throne. Pruinn, the assassin she knows, introduces King Tyec Carrick, who has power over stone. Carrick speaks condescendingly about Malina’s “inferior Orean blood” being necessary to remake the bridge between realms (133). When she retorts, he uses magic to slam a stone tabletop onto her, taunting her to use the magic the twins’ ritual gave her. She cannot while panicking.

Carrick lifts the stone and orders her returned to her room. Malina warns that cold can exploit stone’s weaknesses and eventually win. Though angered, he lets her leave.

Back in her room, Malina focuses on the cold until Pruinn appears. She tells him she must warn Highbell about the invasion. When he reminds her that her people betrayed her, she admits she was wrong to order them killed. He says he believes her enough, reveals he has had the door key all along, and uses shadow and light magic to sneak them past the fae guards. They escape the castle, seeing the fae army marching toward Orea.

Another member of the Wrath, Osrik, sits in a mender’s room at Deadwell Castle, Fourth Kingdom, where the former “saddle,” or concubine, of King Midas Rissa has lain unconscious for weeks after being stabbed in the chest. She was stabbed by the kidnappers who took Auren to the Conflux. Her wheezing breath is the only sign she is alive, and Osrik, who had grown to care for her, has not left her side. When the mender Hojat needs to change her dressing, Osrik refuses to leave despite the gruesome wound.

Judd arrives, averting his gaze from the badly injured Rissa. He tells Osrik he saw Slade, who cannot open a rip and is on a revenge rampage. When Hojat insists Osrik must leave so novices can clean Rissa, Judd leads Osrik to the dungeons, where Manu Ioana is imprisoned in a cell. Osrik grins at seeing the man responsible for Rissa’s condition. After Judd leaves, Osrik enters the cell and waits for Manu to wake.

When Manu awakens and demands to see Ravinger, Osrik calmly explains that Manu will suffer everything Rissa suffers. When Manu denies stabbing her, Osrik throws a dagger into his shoulder. Osrik missed his heart, just as Rissa’s attacker missed hers. He declares that if Rissa dies, Manu dies. Ignoring Manu’s desperate offers of ransom, Osrik leaves and locks the cell.

For five days, Auren has returned to the field with Nenet but seen no sign of Slade. More loyalists gather each day to watch her. Unable to sleep on the sixth morning, she examines five rocks she has turned to gold, noticing her magic is now threaded with black lines of rot—a tangible connection to Slade’s power. Though unsure why it happened, she likes feeling connected to him. Her ribbons remain inert despite her body being healed.

Auren offers to help Thursil and Estelia prepare food but is clumsy in the kitchen. She notices Estelia wears a bracelet with the Vulmin symbol. Estelia explains that the Carrick monarchy’s tyranny has worsened, making rebellion necessary, and that Auren’s return is the push they need.

When Thursil sees trouble from the window, Nenet arrives flustered, revealing that Stone Swords are searching door-to-door for the person who fell from the sky. Auren refuses to hide, deciding she must leave Geisel to protect her friends. Thursil promises to watch the field and send word if anyone arrives.

After a tearful goodbye, Estelia gives Auren a heavy bag of food, and Thursil gives her a pocket watch with the Vulmin sigil. In return, Auren secretly presses her five gold rocks into Thursil’s hand. As she prepares to leave, she feels more self-assured than before.

At night, shape-shifted into his Commander Rip form, Slade watches Queen Isolte of Second Kingdom sleep. She awakens and screams, recognizing him, then tries to use her pain power. It has no effect—Slade is already in agony over Auren’s absence. He forces her from bed and drags her past her murdered guards, interrogating her about how many times she used her power on Auren after kidnapping her.

He brings her to her embittered Temperance Matrons, who harshly scrub Isolte in a wooden tub on Slade’s order, replicating Auren’s humiliating Cleansing. When Isolte uses her power on a Matron, he repeatedly shoves her head underwater until she nearly drowns. He then forces her along the same path to the ruined Conflux stage that Auren walked.

King Merewen is tied to a throne with a dagger in his stomach, guarded by Crest. When Merewen says they are even, Slade becomes enraged and reveals his King Rot form. The royals realize Rip and King Rot are the same person. Slade twists the dagger, explaining he is rotting Merewen’s insides.

Isolte begs for their lives, blaming Queen Kaila. Slade challenges her to torture her husband with her pain power to save herself. She immediately does so until he tells her to stop. He declares she will be buried alive as penance for making Auren feel trapped. His rot destroys the stage, burying both monarchs beneath the rubble. The crowd that condemned Auren now bows to Slade in terror. He tells them that Auren is the only reason he is sparing their lives and not destroying their entire kingdom, then flies away toward Fifth Kingdom.

As Auren leaves, Nenet meets her with a cart to take them to the fields before leaving Geisel. In the cart, they are stopped as Stone Swords patrol the streets. Auren quietly readies her gold-touch but relaxes when they continue. At the field, there is still no sign of Slade or a rip.

Despite the soldiers in town, fae are celebrating in the field. Nenet explains that the field is their symbol of hope that the monarchy cannot take. A little girl gives Auren a feather and asks if enough feathers will fix her broken ribbons. Dozens more fae come forward, offering feathers and touching Auren’s ribbons with reverence. Nearly all wear the Vulmin symbol.

Auren finally accepts her role as their living symbol, understanding that the broken-winged bird represents the fae themselves—broken but hopeful. She realizes the rip may have opened in that field for a reason.

Auren and Nenet leave the fields in a flower-filled cart as heavy rain begins. On Geisel’s main road, the cart is stopped again by Stone Swords. They exit into the rainy, congested street, where the crowd of fae recognizes Auren and helps guide them into a ransacked shop owned by Rillo.

They proceed on foot but find side alleys blocked, trapping them near the main square. They re-enter the chaotic street where Stone Swords are violent and destructive. Auren spots Estelia being restrained. Thursil kneels in the street, held by guards.

A shielded guard accuses Thursil of harboring an enemy of the crown and holds up the gold rocks Auren gave him. He threatens to destroy Geisel if they do not surrender the gilded one. The crowd remains silent, protecting Auren. She notices the broken-winged bird symbol is everywhere. The guard prepares to execute Thursil, but gold erupts from Auren’s fingertips.