Aris and Raker travel north for a day before making camp in a mountain cave. Raker explains that the gods hoard power on Starside to keep the immortals weak and dependent, which is likely why they want their swords. Curious, Aris asks to inspect Raker’s blade. He allows her to examine the magnificent weapon and even to curl her hand around the hilt, but then sheathes it quickly himself. After Raker insults her fighting ability, Aris begins practicing alone. As they settle in for the night, he offers her a rare piece of advice on her footwork, signaling a slight shift in their dynamic.

The cavalry finds their cave, forcing Aris and Raker to flee deeper into the mountain’s dark tunnels. When they reach a hole leading to a lower level, Aris is frozen by a traumatic memory of fire and darkness. Raker coaxes her to jump by promising to catch her and proving his identity by mentioning her snoring. He catches her, and they hide until the soldiers pass.

Raker guides a terrified Aris through the pitch-black tunnels. As they walk, they are ambushed by a fire demon that manifests as an intense, magical heat. Aris shoves Raker against the wall and presses herself against him, warning him not to look, and they keep their eyes shut. Aris and Raker press against one another for protection as the creature whispers promises to fulfill their deepest desires. The encounter gradually gives way to mutual physical attraction; although both hesitate repeatedly, neither pulls away. As Aris reaches up to remove Raker’s mask, he suddenly drops her, blindly kills the demon with a single strike, and immediately distances himself, growling, “This was nothing. You are nothing. Don’t get close to me again” (291). Left humiliated and confused, Aris wonders whether the demon’s magic intensified their desire.

Aris and Raker emerge from the caves into a desolate wasteland. After two days without food or water, they enter a foul bog where Aris is attacked by a skelmire, an undead creature with a gemstone in its chest. Raker initially decapitates it, but Aris, recalling the healer’s book, shouts that he must remove the gem from its chest to truly kill it. Raker punches through the ribcage and extracts the ruby. Dozens more skelmires rise from the swamp and merge into a single massive creature. It nearly kills Aris, but Raker saves her by throwing his sword and slicing the beast in half. Aris, in turn, saves him from another skelmire attacking from behind.

The skelmires’ touch leaves them poisoned. They collapse in the woods, dying. With her last bit of strength, Aris holds up an emerald stolen from the bog and calls out for a creature to come eat it and help them. A divine woman with a star crown appears and touches Aris’s finger, creating a silver path on the ground. Aris rouses a near-unconscious Raker, and they follow the path until they reach a set of gates made of twisted trees, where they collapse again.

Aris awakens in the Traveling City, a magical, moving paradise. She is cared for by two immortal sisters, Galice and Este. She learns Raker is also safe and that their swords were taken by the city’s blacksmith. The city’s leaders, the Elders, identify her savior as the Astral Queen, an ancient being, and conclude the gods must be against Aris’s quest. They grant Aris and Raker shelter for one night.

Later, Aris explores the city and sees Este, who has wings and senses Aris’s grief. Raker finds them and, after Este leaves, challenges Aris to a duel, stating that he has never been able to duel with anyone. He instructs her to call to her sword as if calling a name. The name Stellaris comes to Aris herself, and she whispers it, summoning the blade to her hand. As they fight, Raker is impressed by her skill. He corners her against a tree, and in a moment of intense proximity, he comments that her blue dress matches her eyes before abruptly walking away.

The next morning, Aris meets the blacksmith, who explains that her sword is not a skylark—a weapon imbued with magical properties—but a godsword, an immensely powerful and rare weapon that once belonged to one of the original gods. Its blade is made of paladian, the gods’ own metal. This revelation explains why the gods are hunting them. As they prepare to leave, the Eldress gives Aris a necklace of starlight to protect them from night demons. Este offers a cryptic message while gesturing to the necklace: “There is no such thing as a starless night, Aris. Silver breaks through darkness. Every single time […] If you need help, just reach for it” (321).

Protected by the starlight necklace, Aris and Raker travel at night and join a group of immortals seeking the Traveling City. Aris befriends a young immortal named Daphne. During their travels, Aris is surprised to see Raker playfully dueling with the group’s children. One night, the orb of starlight that protects the group is accidentally shattered. Instantly, demons swarm from the ground and massacre the travelers. An immortal attacks Aris for her necklace, but Daphne intervenes, only to be killed herself. Raker stops Aris from trying to save anyone, physically pinning her against a cliff face while the others are slaughtered.

At sunrise, a devastated Aris confronts Raker, calling him a monster. Blinded by rage and grief, she attacks him. He easily parries her blows before launching his own assault, forcing her back and demanding she fight with real hatred. When he has her pinned, she drops her sword and attacks him with her fists, eventually collapsing on his chest in sobs. Raker waits until she is spent before carrying her away from the carnage. Later, he drops her and insists they duel again as a form of training. Using what she has learned, Aris surprises him and gets her blade to his throat. He forces her hand until his own blood drips from the blade, calling the mark a memory of his weakness.

Dueling becomes a daily part of their journey, with Raker training Aris as a worthy opponent. One night, a sudden storm reveals that the cavalry has found them again. To create a diversion, Raker takes Aris’s starlight necklace and leads the cavalry away, telling her to hide in a cave. Aris waits, eventually falling asleep. She is awakened and attacked by a demon, but Raker returns just in time to kill it. The fight tears Aris’s shirt, revealing the silver, lightning-shaped markings on her neck and chest. Raker demands an explanation. Done with hiding, Aris rips her shirt off and tells him how she was struck by lightning as a child while saving her sister. He traces the silver markings on her skin before abruptly turning and leaving the cave.

Aris recalls her parents’ fear that the king’s knight guard would hunt her for her silver markings. Raker ignores her for a full day, and she confronts him, accusing him of shunning her. She lays bare her vulnerability, noting that he knows her greatest secret while she knows nothing of his past. He coldly replies that there is nothing to know—he is only rage and vengeance.

As they continue traveling, a silver snake with red-rimmed eyes bites Aris. Raker sucks the venom from the wound, poisoning himself to save her, then carries her until he collapses in a cave with a raging fever. Determined to keep him alive, Aris tends to him while coaxing him to speak about his past. He reveals he became a knight to feed his starving family, only to lose them anyway. When Aris asks to see his face, he allows her to remove his hood, revealing the scars and striking features he has hidden beneath his mask. In return, Aris finally confesses the true purpose of her journey: She intends to kill the gods.

As Raker’s condition worsens, Aris ventures out in search of medicinal herbs. She is pursued by immortal bounty hunters and barely escapes back to the cave. One hunter reveals that the God of Death wants Aris captured alive while ordering Raker’s execution. Though barely conscious, Raker kills the attacker by throwing his sword. Surrounded by the cavalry and with no escape remaining, Aris cuts her palm, plunges her blade into the earth, and calls upon Vander Evren. Honoring his promise to Stellan, Vander transports them to his estate, where Raker is taken to the stables while Aris receives medicine for his fever. That night, Aris visits him with ice to reduce his temperature. Their quiet conversation gives way to unexpected tension before Raker abruptly orders her to leave, telling her, “Don’t visit me again, Aris” (377).

The next morning, Aris finds breakfast waiting in her quarters before meeting Vander Evren. In exchange for helping Raker, Vander explains that Stellan completed the Questral but chose to give the gods’ magic to Vander’s people rather than use it himself. He reveals a living map created from his Godsword and explains that Aris can travel between the Great Houses only by earning invitations—oaths sworn upon her blade.

Believing the mortal heirs must unite against the gods, Vander encourages Aris to attend Heartfall, a grand courting ball hosted at his estate, where she can forge political alliances. He begins preparing her for the event, arranging dance lessons and teaching her the customs of immortal society. During one lesson, he notices her silver markings and insists she stop hiding them, calling them beautiful rather than shameful.

On the night of Heartfall, a magical dressing room creates a shimmering gown that intentionally displays Aris’s silver markings alongside her Starside sword. Before attending the ball, she visits the chained Raker in the stables and asks him to swear an oath on her blade so she can use Vander’s portal network. He refuses, coldly rejecting both the request and her attempt to reconnect after the previous night.

At the ball, Aris becomes the center of attention and successfully secures an oath from Magnus, heir to House Harlow. Soon afterward, Raker escapes the stables and confronts her. When Magnus interrupts them to defend her, Aris impulsively pretends she and Raker are lovers, kissing his neck to maintain the deception. The act ignites the attraction simmering between them before they abruptly separate. As the encounter ends, both notice fresh blood where their skin touched despite neither being wounded. Vander arrives carrying the severed head of a guard and reveals that he is a bloodbane.