The Emperor's Enemy

Inside the tavern, a waiter gives Zora a powdered drug on behalf of the owner, their target Sibrain Cortz. Zora pretends to consume it but spits most of it out, although the small amount she consumes is enough to cause powerful hallucinations. Tarantula confronts her, caressing her with his wind magic and insulting her revealing clothing, and she retorts by calling him a “prude.” Zora deliberately lures Sibrain into approaching her, where he confirms that Emperor Aleksander has been obsessed with her for years and blames her rejection for his increasing cruelty. 

Sibrain suddenly attacks, attempting to suffocate her with magic, but Zora repeatedly stabs him while struggling to conceal her own emerging water powers. During their struggle, Zora is inexplicably transported twice to a vision of the snow-covered Barren Forest, where she sees a single red rose each time before returning to the tavern. As Sibrain is about to stab Zora, Tarantula intervenes, using a concentrated wind magic to mutilate his face. Sibrain prostrates himself before Tarantula, who decapitates him with Zora’s dagger. Tarantula then becomes increasingly enraged upon learning that Sibrain touched Zora.

Still under the drug’s influence, Zora rests on a couch in the tavern while Tarantula watches her intensely. From across the room, he uses his wind magic to caress her body, deliberately mirroring his own suggestive movements to provoke her. When an aerial dancer attempts to kiss Zora, Tarantula moves with supernatural speed, throwing the dancer across the room. He then shatters every lantern in the tavern, igniting a devastating fire and causing a stampede of terrified patrons. Zora, barely able to move, inadvertently unleashes her water magic and causes underground water pipes to burst, dousing the flames. Unaware that Zora is the source of the water, Tarantula carries her over his shoulder from the wreckage. Zora secretly uses her magic on the way out to save a trapped woman, but Tarantula ultimately destroys the building completely. As he carries Zora away, their antagonism becomes increasingly charged with sexual tension, as he rests his hand possessively on her thigh as he carries her.

Tarantula carries Zora to her inn room and, where he reluctantly admits that he has been secretly giving her pygmy owl, Squire, seeds. Despite his earlier provocative behavior, he becomes embarrassed by Zora’s exposed skin and refuses to look directly at her. Their argument escalates when Zora throws an oil lamp at him, starting a fire, and he retaliates by throwing another lamp, igniting the bed’s canopy. He protects the sleeping Squire with a magic bubble as Zora attacks him. They grapple on the floor, and when Zora holds a glass shard to his neck, they are both transported to the Barren Forest vision. There, he presses against her, admitting he is fighting “wicked inclinations to possess” (313) her. Although she has the opportunity to kill him, Zora cannot bring herself to do so and throws the glass away. They return to the burning room just as Ella and Axel to walk in. After ordering them out, Tarantula magically extinguishes the fire, lays Zora on the scorched bed, and sleeps on the floor.

The group travels to a bathhouse to confront their second target, Arcturus. After the twins and Tarantula drink the complimentary fairy wine, a waitress warns Zora that the drinks have been poisoned. Arcturus then attacks in the form of a massive dire bear, while the poison incapacitates Ella and Axel and severely weakens Tarantula. However, Tarantula manages to magically restrains the bear’s arms while Zora fights it with her daggers. She eventually forces the creature into a pool where she uses her concealed water magic to rip out one of its two hearts. As Arcturus partially transforms back into his human form, Zora drives her dagger into his exposed second heart. However, he simultaneously slashes her throat.

As she dies, Zora encounters an elf named Barren. He reveals that they marked her face with silver as a child to warn others not to interfere with her trials. Barren explains that Zora comes from a lineage of kin who underwent similar trials, declaring her worth of becoming a Keeper of the forest. Barren resurrects her, heals her, and restores a memory of their original encounter years before. After returning to life, Zora retrieves the antidote from the frightened woman who warned her, saving her companions. She then reveals to a disbelieving Tarantula that she killed Arcturus herself.

After the confrontation with Arcturus, Tarantula tests a suspicion about Zora by unexpectedly drenching her with water. However, she manages to conceal her water magic abilities. Upon returning to the Scorpion Hole, Ryse fits Tarantula with a new shock collar, while the Marshal gives the control dial to Zora.

Determined to uncover the truth about Aurora’s death and the Emperor’s intentions, Zora subjects Tarantula to hours of electrical torture while demanding answers. Despite the pain, he refuses to reveal anything. After Zora finally turns off the collar, their confrontation shifts into an increasingly intimate struggle for control. Tarantula becomes visibly agitated by her proximity and revealing clothing, admitting he desires “unchecked power” over her. He pulls Zora onto his lap and confesses that for years, she is the only one he has wanted to possess. When Zora challenges him to explain his desires, his response becomes explicitly sexual, further blurring the boundaries in their relationship.