Cain and Neema wait outside the emperor’s chambers while Hal Vabras reports on Gaida’s murder. Cain quietly points out that Neema will likely be the prime suspect. Few people had reason to hate the beloved Gaida.

Neema asks if Cain killed her to frame Ruko. Cain is startled, because that would mean Gaida was stabbed with the Blade of Peace. Though neither of them believes in the curse, they know Bersun and Vabras do.

A servant brings them into Bersun’s chambers. With the Festival beginning and the last boat already gone, Neema offers to investigate Gaida’s murder herself. Bersun gives her four days and assigns Cain to assist her. Since Cain designed the First Trial as “a bespoke experience tailored to each contender’s history and character” (162), Bersun also orders him to redesign Gaida’s Trial for Neema, revealing that she will replace Gaida as the Raven contender.

Normally contenders are chosen by their communities, but when one dies, the contingent leader names the replacement. Neema struggles to believe Kindry Rok would choose her until Vabras addresses him as Lord Kindry. Bersun has granted him a hereditary title to ensure Neema’s selection, breaking one of Yasthala’s Five Rules: An emperor must never influence the choice of his successor. Neema protests she does not want the throne, but Bersun replies he once said the same when Brother Lanrik named him a contender, and Lanrik told him that was exactly why he had chosen him.

Until proper clothes can be made for her, Neema is given Fenn’s oversized uniform from the previous Festival. Fenn informs her she will fight Shal Worthy that day. Fenn thinks she is fortunate, as the Hound Code of Ethics forbids him from harming someone significantly weaker.

At the parade grounds, courtiers gossip about Gaida’s death. Fenn reminds Neema the match lasts three rounds, with one involving weapons. She can end the fight at any time by shouting “stop.”

The contenders line up as the Dragon’s proxy arrives. For 15 centuries the Dragons have sent proxies from other monasteries, but today they send one of their own, Visitor Pyke. Visitors roam the empire collecting children Chosen by the Dragon, marked with a scorched ∞ on their wrists, and escort them to Helia. His powers have been stripped so he can participate. All the contenders greet him respectfully except Ruko, who claims the Visitor cannot stop him from taking the throne. Pyke answers that he is not there to stop him, but to kill him.

The Day of the Fox begins with duels. Cain defeats Tala. Havoc then spars with the Visitor; though Havoc appears superior at first, it becomes clear Pyke is only playing with him, deliberately losing two rounds. Havoc wins but leaves humiliated.

At lunch in the imperial menagerie, Tala mentions her partner Sunur saw Ruko pacing the orchard until three in the morning, She and Cain suspect someone lured Ruko away so the unguarded blade could be stolen from his chambers. Meanwhile, Tala and Katsan admired Gaida, and so Neema believes they would not have harmed her; Havoc was training with his contingent the night of her death; Shal was sick from food poisoning; and Cain was at an orgy. Neema believes these facts leave her with no likely suspects among the contenders.

When the Visitor arrives, he claims Cain ate his lunch. Visitors poison their food with a sea-urchin toxin they alone can survive to protect their food source while on the road. Pyke tells Cain he has five minutes to live. Tala runs for Jadu and the antidote, but Cain miraculously not only survives but seems to overcome the poison. Ruko arrives and suggests that Cain never actually ate the stew, claiming that it was a Fox trick Cain must be pleased everyone fell for. The contenders believe this and are annoyed. Only Shal remains certain he saw Cain eat the stew.

The contenders attend the Fox Trial held at the imperial tombs. Abbot Fort explains that the Foxes have altered the tunnels, and one path now leads to the temple crypts. Each contender has an hour to find it, reach the Fox chapel, and light incense for the First Guardian. If they fail, Cain will be sent to rescue them. Shal withdraws, unwilling to disturb his uncle’s resting place for personal ambition. Fort tells him to wait on the veranda. As Shal leaves, Ruko calls him a fool. Shal claims he would rather be a fool than the type of person to sacrifice his own sister for power.

Ruko enters the tunnels first. While the others wait in the scorching sun, Neema considers the Trial, which was designed by Cain. She knows that it would never be as straightforward as it seems, and that Cain would have designed it to ensure his biggest threat (Ruko) came in last. Given Ruko’s biggest weakness is his disregard for others, Neema believes the Trial is about generosity.

Neema discreetly communicates this to Shal, giving him the advantage to show kindness to every contender after they emerge from the tombs, effectively winning the Trial. When it is Neema and Katsan’s turn to brave the tunnels, she offers Katsan water, which she refuses, still believing Neema killed Gaida. Neema offers the water to Abbot Fort instead, who wonders if she’s “Kind or clever” (203).

Neema and Katsan enter the tunnels and split up. Neema doubts the Foxes were ever allowed to alter the imperial tombs, meaning the temple crypt path doesn’t exist. Since the Trial is about generosity, she plans to wander for the hour. A scream echoes through the tunnels. Thinking Katsan is in danger, Neema runs toward the sound, but the floor collapses and she falls into a pit.

The scream Neema heard was only a Fox trick, but when Katsan hears Neema’s real cry, she refuses to help, still blaming her for Gaida’s death. As she continues, voices whisper the words once spoken by the Bear commander who doubted Katsan could ever win the Trials. Believing she’s been drugged, Katsan doesn’t realize Foxes are whispering through the tunnels to torment her.

Neema realizes she’s fallen into a sea of hats. Two Foxes peek over the edge of the pit. When she asks for help, they claim they’d help her but they have no rope. They explain that Neema has fallen into Tala’s worst fear—a recurring childhood nightmare about drowning in a sea of hats. Neema grabs one, yanks him in, and forces the other to rescue them both. Using scarves tied together as rope, she gets out and continues.

She inspects a storeroom, but gets locked in by another Fox. The walls close in, trapping her in a space the size of a coffin. It then fills with dirt, nearly suffocating her. Remembering Havoc, who returned from his trial earlier covered in dirt, she believes she’s stumbled into his greatest fear—being buried alive. Neema calms her breathing and waits the nightmare out. Eventually the walls pull back and she is released from the room.

Neema wanders until she reaches the Hall of Heroes. A flock of ravens appears, circling her before guiding her to a coffin containing an ebony chest. Inside are weapons and armor meant for a Raven warrior. Cain arrives to collect her and witnesses her speaking to herself. Neema, who is speaking to the ravens, decides she’s imagined them because he cannot see the birds.

After the Trial, Neema pours herself a refreshment which irrationally angers Katsan, who believes she should be actively investigating to find Gaida’s killer. Katsan grabs Neema’s arm, her nails drawing blood from her bicep, and accuses her of killing Gaida to take her place. While no one else openly agrees with Katsan, Neema sees a few of her fellow contenders exchange glances that suggest they’ve wondered the same.

Abbot Fort concludes the Trial. He claims there was no path to the temple and that the Trial was about how they treated one another. Shal wins 5 points for placing first, followed by Tala with four, Neema with three, Havoc with two, Katsan with one, and Ruko with none. Ruko points out that Katsan has injured Neema’s arm and believes a penalty must be administered. Adhering to The Laws of the Festival official documents, Katsan must forfeit her most recent Trial points to the injured party. Neema therefore receives Katsan’s one point, bringing Neema to a total of four.

The contenders are moved into the Palace of the Awakening Dragon for the remainder of the Festival, where Imperial Hounds can better protect them. From their neighboring apartment balconies, Neema speaks with Tala’s wife, Sunur. Sunur saw Ruko waiting for someone in the orchard last night. She claims he had a note with him which he hid in his tunic.

Though it’s not allowed, Sunur’s disgust for Ruko trumps the law forbidding anyone from speaking of the exiled. She tells Neema that Yana passed through their town during the Procession of Exile. The people were forced to line the streets and shout vile things at Yana as she passed. Sunur hates how gleeful many of her neighbors were to participate in the act. When Neema is unnerved by Sunur speaking about it, worried the Imperial Hounds might overhear and execute her for it, Sunur implies that staying at the palace makes her feel like a prisoner.

Neema receives her official contender uniform in the afternoon. Her first fight is against Shal. Since she earned his trust during the Fox Trial, he goes easy on her. For the second round, Neema uses the Raven shield from the chest she found in the tunnels. A massive Raven appears beside her, visible only to her. Telling herself the Guardians are merely metaphor makes it vanish from sight, though it remains present.

Though Shal is still being merciful with her, after a particularly painful smack to her knuckles with his wooden sticks, Neema makes the mistake of praying to the Raven to protect her. The Raven possesses Neema, using her body to strike his chest with her shield, knocking him back. Neema raises the shield, as if to bring the sharp bottom edge down on his throat, but she regains control of her body just in time to throw the shield to the ground. Round two’s point is given to Neema for that display, but Shal is now distrustful and angry. Round three, he doesn’t go easy on her. He uses his full force to take Neema down immediately, forcing her to forfeit and lose half a point. When they return to the line of contenders, Neema attempts to apologize, but Shal claims it is his fault for trusting her.

In the next match, Ruko decisively defeats Katsan, who is distracted by grief over Gaida. Though he has an alibi, Neema wonders if the Tiger abbess killed Gaida to help him and asks Cain to question her.

Neema searches Gaida’s apartment for clues. From the balcony she sees the musicians who performed at the feast and summons the youngest brother, Riff. He admits they practiced the emperor’s song in a north palace apartment near the trash bins—the same apartment Neema once lived in, with the balcony where she saw Yasila the day before.

After dismissing him, Neema studies the crime scene again. Gaida would have fought any attacker, yet she had no defensive wounds. Neema finds Gaida’s teapot and cup. During their meeting the day before, Gaida had asked her servant to replace her usual valerian tea with lavender, but the pot contains valerian. Someone familiar with her routine drugged her with the old blend—someone who didn’t know she had changed it. Neema concludes Gaida was likely drugged heavily and killed in her sleep or died from the dose. The blade may have been planted afterward to frame the Tigers.

Neema packs up the evidence and visits Hol Vabras to report her theory that the weapon was used after Gaida’s death only to frame or humiliate Ruko Valit.

That night, Neema sleeps deeply and the Raven watches over her. The Raven plans to honor her with its friendship and believes “she is almost ready” (253). It has already introduced itself to her in disguise, as the enchanted book from the tombs, Tales of the Raven.

Ruko Valit enters her chambers. The Raven pecks Neema’s forehead to wake her in case he intends harm. Ruko senses the bird’s presence, asks who is there, and draws the sign of the eternal eight in peace. Satisfied, the Raven retreats but sends Neema a vision of him standing beside her bed. She wakes to find Ruko there. He claims he means no harm and has come to speak. Hearing she suspects his abbess, Rivenna Glorren, he insists he needs no cheating to win and that Rivenna would never use the cursed Blade. Neema reveals Gaida was likely not killed by the Blade, surprising Ruko.

When she asks why he waited in the orchard the previous night, Ruko produces a paper: An Order of Exile written in Neema’s hand, identical to the one in the archives. It came with a note in his sister Yana’s voice telling him where to meet her. He now believes it was a trap arranged by his mother so she could frame him for Gaida’s murder. Neema realizes several contenders were targeted that night: Ruko lured away, Shal poisoned, and she herself drugged. All had roles in Yana’s exile, giving Yasila motive.

She plans to question Yasila the next day. Ruko warns his mother is dangerous, but states that the Raven seems to be protecting Neema. As a non-believer, Neema dismisses this idea. Before leaving, Ruko remarks he hopes he does not have to kill her during the Festival, as she might be useful when he is emperor.

After he leaves, Neema falls back asleep. The Raven pulls the book from beneath her pillow and writes a new story: “Yasila and the Dragons.” The tale reveals that as a baby Yasila was shipwrecked on Helia with her parents. Since her mother, Marana, was a direct descendant of Yasthala and her father was a Lord, Janu of the Dragons decided to spare their lives rather than risk war with Orrun, only if one remained as hostage. Her pregnant mother chose to sacrifice Yasila.

Raised unloved among the Dragons, Yasila befriended Pyke, another lonely child destined to become a Visitor. When she learned of Dragonscale—the magical substance powering Dragon spells—she stole the entire supply and escaped. She sought out Andren Valit, the young Governor of Samra, and married him. She told him of the Dragonscale she’d stolen and he negotiated with the Dragons on her behalf. Each year she would send them Dragonscale oil in exchange for their oath never to harm her. Upon learning Yasila had escaped Helia, Marana gifted her fortune and titles to Yasila as recompense for her abandonment.

Time passed, Yasila bore three children, and Andren lost the Festival. Sore loser that he was, Andren planned a rebellion to take the throne from Bersun. After he failed and was executed, Visitor Pyke visited Yasila in her new modest apartment in Armas, where he threatened the lives of her children if she did not surrender all of the Dragonscale. Yasila instead used a master spell to paralyze him, poured Dragonscale oil over his head, and commanded him to speak. Unspoken truths came flooding out, including his love for her. Yasila laughed and admitted that if he had come to her earlier with an open heart, she could have loved him, but that time had passed. She carved her initial “Y” into his cheek with a knife and told him to deliver a message to the Dragon’s leader, Jadu, that if she threatened Yasila’s family again, she would hunt down and kill all of her Visitors.