Raker orders Aris to leave the cave, but she refuses. Unwilling to fight, Raker decides to leave instead. Desperate for an ally, Aris asks him to work with her. When he ignores her, she strikes first; Raker blocks and calls her pathetic. Aris responds that she sees no cracks in her sword, implying the swords are “equally matched.”

To force his cooperation, Aris shows Raker her map. When he threatens to kill her for it, she throws the map into the fire below, claiming she has memorized it. Raker reluctantly agrees to an alliance, warning he will kill her if she slows him down. Inside the cave, Aris has a vision of her deceased sister in the burning woods outside. She climbs down to reach the apparition, which reveals itself to be a demon and attacks. Aris kills it, and as it dies, it reverts to her sister’s form, causing Aris to break down.

Raker pulls her away, telling her the vision wasn’t real. The demon’s death awakens a horde of night creatures that emerge from the ground. They flee by climbing the cliff face, but the cave is now blocked. At the top, they run toward a lake. Aris realizes the demons cannot cross water. In the chaos, Aris’s feet leave the ground at the cliff edge, and she plunges into the lake. Weighed down by her sword, she begins to drown until Raker dives in and saves her just as she loses consciousness.

Aris awakens on a small island where Raker has taken her. The shore is surrounded by night demons, trapping them until dawn. Raker is furious, telling Aris he only saved her because he needs the information from her memorized map.

The next morning, the demons are gone. Raker demands Aris draw the next section of the map, which shows the way to a region called the Prism Pass. He then establishes the terms of their partnership: She is to follow his orders and not speak. He swims across the lake, telling her to “figure it out” (156). Aris tears a large piece of buoyant bark from a tree and uses it to paddle across, finding Raker waiting on the opposite shore.

They travel at a punishing pace for the rest of the day. That evening, they camp by a rushing river. Raker crosses to the narrow strip of land at the river’s center; Aris camps at the river’s edge, hoping proximity to the water will protect her. He builds a fire and catches a fish, eating it without offering her any. During the night, a demon approaches. Aris stumbles backward into the river while retreating from it and drags herself across the current onto Raker’s strip of land. Raker does not move.

Aris and Raker travel for another day in silence, arriving at the Prism Pass, a vivid land of green mountains and waterfalls. They make camp in a cave, and Raker leaves to hunt. Aris explores a nearby forest, foraging for mushrooms and berries. She is harassed by mischievous pixies before encountering a gentle, green-furred elk with flowers in its antlers. Raker appears and kills the elk for food, coldly telling Aris that everything dies when she demands to know why he killed it. She thinks that she got the elk killed “just like everything else in [her] life” 167.

Back at the cave, Raker cooks and eats the meat alone. During their travels through the Prism Pass, they reach a pristine pool. Aris demands privacy to bathe. Raker ignores her and announces he is also bathing, removing his boots; Aris is the one who leaves. When Raker returns from hunting that evening empty-handed, Aris taunts him. They argue viciously, with Raker calling her weak and unworthy of her sword. When she retorts that their equally unmarred swords show they are matched, she enrages him and tries to remove his mask. He grabs her wrist, stopping her, and they trade threats about their concealed appearances before he lets her go in disgust. Later that night, Aris steals Raker’s soap and goes to a stream to bathe alone.

While Aris bathes, a demon with black veins crawling up his skin appears at the water’s edge. He cannot enter the water but informs her he has come to collect her for the “stolen brides.” She is forced to remain in the freezing stream all night until sunrise, when the demon finally leaves. When she returns to the cave, Raker calls her an idiot.

For the next three days, they travel through the Prism Pass. One afternoon, Aris discovers Raker training alone in the woods without his armor on. She is captivated by his powerful physique and his extraordinary skill as he cuts down trees and slices every falling leaf in half with his sword. He senses her presence and pins her to a tree with his blade, the tip stopping an inch from her body. He calls her a fool for trying to sneak up on him. When Aris asks him to train her, he refuses, telling her she will be dead soon anyway. That night, she has a nightmare about her family’s murder and screams in her sleep. Raker wakes her, covering her mouth, and warns that her screaming will attract danger.

The lush Prism Pass gives way to a desolate, ashen landscape where the water is undrinkable. While Raker is away, Aris practices with her sword and masters a basic cutting motion. As they continue, their food and water run out. The rot in the land spoils Aris’s remaining berries. When Raker returns from hunting empty-handed, Aris shares her last edible mushrooms with him. During their tense meal, he reveals he knows her name, though she never told him, and calls her weak. Afterward, he gives Aris his water pouch and tells her to keep it; Aris interprets this as disgust—he would rather go without than drink from something her lips have touched. The next day, as Aris practices, she is ambushed by an immortal wielding a glowing red sword and is knocked unconscious.

Aris awakens to find she has been captured by a group of immortals who plan to give her and her sword to their mysterious “Lordship.” Feigning unconsciousness, she waits for an opportunity to attack, killing one immortal. In the ensuing battle, she kills several more, finding it easier to fight with a lighter bronze sword she takes from a corpse.

The leader of the immortals corners her. His glowing red sword has magical properties, and he uses it to control Aris’s body, forcing her toward a swirling pit in the ground. Aris resists his mental control, and the immortal, who is visibly struggling to wield the powerful weapon, loses his grip on its magic. Aris breaks free and kills him, but not before he throws the red sword into the pit. As she collapses, Raker appears. He admits he watched the entire fight and did nothing to help. After confirming she is not seriously hurt, he commands her to get up.

Raker explains that the immortal’s weapon was a “Godsword,” a blade with magical properties. That night, he offers Aris a water pouch taken from one of the dead immortals. He agrees to train her, explaining that it is in his best interest that she survive to guide him with the map. He begins by physically correcting her stance; the close contact makes Aris flustered. During their sparring session, he easily evades her attacks without drawing his own sword.

When she asks for help, he forces her to hold a difficult striking position as a test of endurance. Determined to prove her strength, Aris holds the painful stance for hours, long after Raker has gone to sleep. He continues this training the next night. When their food and water run out again, Aris suggests heading north toward a village on the map; Raker simply nods. They stop by a bridge, where Raker teaches her how to unsheathe her blade more quickly. That night, as they rest, Aris jokes that she fears dying “in a stupid way,” prompting a dry exchange in which Raker admits only that he’s afraid that Aris “won’t stop talking” (203). Aris quietly confesses her deeper fears of the dark, fire, and water, and Raker listens without dismissing her.

The following day, two immortal children steal Aris’s coin. The boys’ mother apologizes and offers them shelter. At the inn, a group of immortal knights notice Aris’s sword, making her a target. Unable to sleep that night, Aris visits the healer mother’s home across the road, where she receives a sleeping elixir and learns about the deadly creatures of Starside while reading an illustrated bestiary. Before Aris leaves the next morning, the healer gives her empty vials to collect useful poisons and antidotes gathered from magical beasts. When the same immortal knights ambush her outside the inn to steal her sword, Aris flees toward the Bone Woods, forcing her into the deadly mist.

Inside the Bone Woods, the mist muffles all sound, and Aris becomes lost among trees made of bone. She is confronted by the Gardener, an ancient, powerful being who speaks into her mind. He rifles through her thoughts uninvited and surfaces the name Vander Evren—the immortal Stellan told Aris to find. In exchange for her life, the Gardener demands one of her 10 most treasured memories. To continue her quest, Aris agrees, and he plucks the memory from one of her tears. He then warns her that he is not the deadliest creature in the woods and tells her to run.

Immediately after he vanishes, Aris is hunted by a pack of saberwolves. She escapes up a tree, but one of the wolves manages to graze her calf with a venomous fang, numbing her entire leg. The wolves eventually knock her out of the tree.

As the saberwolves attack, Aris kills one. The other two immediately stop to devour their fallen packmate, giving Aris a chance to crawl away. They soon resume their pursuit. As they corner her, she tumbles down a hill, dislocating her shoulder. Before the wolves can attack, a swarm of giant bats descends, and a massive fight breaks out between the creatures, attracting more monsters from the mist.

Raker suddenly appears. He grabs Aris, pins her to his chest with one arm, and slaughters the entire horde of beasts with the other. He is furious with her recklessness, revealing he followed her into the mist only to secure her sword, which he covets. Using blood from the dead saberwolf, Aris creates an antidote for the venom in her leg. Raker then resets her dislocated shoulder. During their passage through the mists, Raker identifies and kills an illusionary creature called a lusk. Finally, they emerge into a forest of giant silver skyquill trees.

Beyond the mists, Aris and Raker reach the silver skyquill forest. They find a clear stream where Aris bathes using a piece of Raker’s soap, which he gives her. While foraging, Aris disturbs a massive bear-like creature called a steelclaw. It pursues her, destroying the great trees with a magical silver beam from its mouth, until an immortal hunter shoots it dead with a giant crossbow-bolt made of the creature’s own claw material.

The hunter explains the steelclaw was drawn by the magic in Aris’s sword. His dragon, Invira, drenches Aris with a torrent of water. In exchange for a pair of saberwolf fangs, the hunter agrees to procure a creature to carry Aris and Raker out of the woods, saving them several days of travel. As night falls, the forest fills with glowing fireflies, and Aris marvels at the beauty of Starside.

The hunter gives Aris frozen apples to lure out a translucent creature called a skyhorse. Aris and Raker mount it together, and the close contact unsettles Aris. During the night ride, she falls asleep slumped against Raker, who holds her. The horse carries them out of the forest to a ruined lakeside castle, where they take shelter.

Raker builds a fire and warms the space. When Aris asks for another training lesson, he refuses, unleashing a torrent of harsh criticism: calling her reckless, weak, and a liability who nearly got him killed in the mists. He tells her she never had what it takes and orders her to go home and leave her sword behind. Aris, unable to stop herself, cries, and Raker walks away into the ruins.