Arobynn announces the death of mentor Ben and the capture of Gregori at a tense Assassins' Guild council meeting.

Captain Rolfe reveals the letter from Arobynn contains terms for a slave trade deal, not orders to avenge murdered assassins.

Celaena and Sam tour Rolfe's slave ship and witness enslaved children being sold to brothels, resolving to defy Arobynn's orders.

Celaena knocks Rolfe unconscious while Sam fights off pirates and fires the catapult to break the harbor chain.

Celaena forces Rolfe at knifepoint to sign documents ending the slave trade and making Skull's Bay a sanctuary for escaped enslaved people.

Arobynn beats Celaena as punishment for stopping his slave deal and sends her to train with the Silent Assassins in the Red Desert.

Celaena arrives at the Silent Assassins' desert fortress and fights four assassins simultaneously to prove she deserves to be trained.

Ansel drugs Celaena's wine and sends her into the desert with a forged letter, claiming the Mute Master has dismissed her early.

Celaena breaks the seal on her letter, finds it blank, and rides back after spotting Berick's army marching toward the fortress.

The Mute Master speaks aloud for the first time and gives Celaena a genuine letter of approval along with gold enough to pay her debts.

Sam confesses he has been in love with Celaena for years, and she kisses him and says she chooses him over Arobynn.

Celaena and Sam execute the Doneval contract; Sam is shot through the heart but the hidden spidersilk patch in his suit saves his life.

Arobynn confesses he lied about Doneval, revealing the man was actually an anti-enslavement activist trying to stop the slave trade.

Sam goes alone to kill Rourke Farran and does not come home.

The King of Adarlan sentences Celaena to nine lifetimes of labor in the salt mines of Endovier.

Celaena Sardothien's story begins in Arobynn Hamel's Assassins' Guild, where the murder of her mentor Ben sets the stage for her growing defiance against her master. In Skull's Bay, Celaena and Sam discover Arobynn's true mission and choose to free two hundred enslaved people, an act of rebellion that earns Celaena a brutal beating and exile to the Red Desert. After training with the Silent Assassins and foiling Ansel's betrayal, she returns to Rifthold with the Mute Master's gold and letter of approval, finally free of her debts to Arobynn. Sam confesses his love and Celaena chooses him, and together they carry out a mission that Arobynn secretly uses to deceive them both. When Sam is killed by Farran in a trap arranged by Arobynn, Celaena attempts revenge but is captured, and the King of Adarlan enslaves her in Endovier—the very fate she once risked everything to spare others from.

Celaena's most defining decisions and their devastating consequences.

Celaena defies the other assassins' warnings and goes alone to retrieve the body of her slain mentor Ben.

Celaena and Sam board Rolfe's slave ship and are horrified by the brutal conditions and violent treatment of the captives.

Celaena and Sam row out at night to Rolfe's ships and explain their escape plan to an enslaved man named Dia.

Sam is stabbed by pirates but manages to fire the catapult and break the harbor chain, letting the enslaved ships escape.

Celaena rescues Yrene Towers from a group of mercenaries attacking her in a dark alley behind the White Pig tavern.

Celaena teaches Yrene self-defense moves and then deliberately lets the mercenaries attack again to give Yrene a chance to practice.

Celaena secretly leaves a pouch of gold coins and her ruby brooch in Yrene's room so she can travel to the Torre Cesme.

Celaena and Ansel steal two rare Asterion horses named Hisli and Kasida from Lord Berick's stables in the city of Xandria.

The Mute Master punishes Celaena and Ansel for stealing the horses but formally agrees to train Celaena personally.

Celaena fights her way through Berick's soldiers and hurls a dagger at Ansel to stop her from beheading the Mute Master.

Celaena returns to the Assassins' Keep and hands Arobynn the gold from the Mute Master to settle her long-standing debt.

Celaena breaks into Doneval's private study alone, is overpowered by his guards, and nearly drowns in a flooding sewer beneath his house.

Sam hears Celaena screaming from the street and breaks open the sewer grate to pull her out before she drowns.

Arobynn informs Celaena that Sam has been killed by Farran, and she goes to the Keep's morgue to see his body.

Arobynn reveals to Farran that he orchestrated Sam's death and Celaena's enslavement, calling them his possessions to justify his betrayal.

This pool highlights the secondary beats that give Celaena's journey its depth and texture, beginning with her solo retrieval of Ben's body and her horror at the conditions aboard Rolfe's slave ships. The plan to free the captives, Sam's near-fatal stabbing at the watchtower, and Celaena's brief but meaningful friendship with Yrene Towers in Innish reveal the compassion and loyalty that define her beneath her assassin's exterior. In the Red Desert, the theft of Asterion horses from Berick and the Mute Master's decision to train Celaena personally set up the dramatic betrayal and climactic confrontation that close the third novella. Back in Rifthold, Celaena navigates near-drowning in a flooded sewer and the gradual payment of her debts before the relationship with Sam deepens into something she cannot bear to lose. The pool ends with the devastating revelation of Sam's death and Arobynn's private confession to Farran that he orchestrated the entire tragedy to keep his prized possessions under his control.

The supporting moments that shaped Celaena's path across Erilea.

Celaena and Sam start a brawl in Rolfe's tavern to distract the pirates and slip away to sabotage the harbor chain.

Celaena finds Sam alive in the rubble of the collapsed watchtower and they embrace in relief after the harbor battle.

Yrene breaks free from a mercenary holding a blade to her throat using the self-defense moves Celaena recently taught her.

Ansel confesses under the desert stars that Lord Loch murdered her father and sister and that Briarcliff Hall has been gone for years.

The Mute Master begins training Celaena personally, using an asp snake to teach her fluid, serpent-like movements.

Celaena nearly kisses Ilias at the Midsummer Eve party but pulls back when Sam's face flashes through her mind.

Celaena corners Ansel in the Mute Master's chamber, and Ansel admits she killed Mikhail and wounded Ilias to execute her betrayal.

Celaena gives Ansel a head start and fires her arrow a moment past the deadline, letting it land behind the horse's hooves.

Celaena and Sam attend the theater together, exchange quiet compliments, and later both admit they missed each other while she was away.

Celaena attends Doneval's Harvest Moon party undercover and extracts the exact time of his secret meeting by flirting with him directly.

Celaena sells her Asterion mare Kasida and uses the money to buy Sam's freedom from Arobynn's guild.

Celaena and Sam watch Farran sadistically torture a debtor inside the Vaults, prompting them to question whether they are any different.

Arobynn visits Celaena's apartment uninvited and tells her he loves her; she rejects him and orders him out.

Celaena kills Ioan Jayne but Farran captures her with gloriella incense and reveals she fell into a trap arranged with Arobynn.

Celaena smells a Terrasen pine breeze inside the wagon approaching Endovier and chooses to stand up and walk into the salt mines.

This pool follows the pivotal emotional moments and revelations that define each arc of Celaena's story, starting with the tavern brawl that triggers the harbor escape and her tearful reunion with Sam in the rubble afterward. Yrene's successful use of Celaena's training against a mercenary captures the ripple effect of Celaena's compassion, while Ansel's confession about her destroyed homeland sets up the most personal betrayal Celaena faces in the Red Desert. The Mute Master's asp training, the Midsummer party, and the confrontation where Ansel admits her full treachery mark the quiet but decisive turning points that define Celaena's growth as a person. Back in Rifthold, the theater outing, Doneval's party, and Sam's freedom purchased at the cost of a beloved horse hint at the life they could have built together before Arobynn's cruelty destroys it. The pool closes with Farran's trap, Arobynn's unmasked betrayal, and Celaena's final act of defiance as she walks into Endovier carrying Sam's memory and the Terrasen breeze at her back.