Vincent finds young Oraya in the ruins of Salinae and adopts her as his human daughter.

Vincent forces teenage Oraya to kill her vampire first love as punishment for disobeying his orders.

Oraya decides to enter the Kejari to obtain a wish from Nyaxia and locate her surviving human family.

Oraya makes her blood sacrifice to Nyaxia and awakens in the Moon Palace as a Kejari contestant.

Oraya discovers Ilana's murdered body in the Moon Palace and burns it, taking the purple silk scarf.

Raihn shocks all contestants by using the rare Asteris power to kill Klyn at the Kejari feast.

Mortally wounded after the Full Moon trial, Oraya collapses at the eastern tower and accepts Raihn's alliance.

Oraya's latent magic bursts out during training, launching Raihn through a window for the first time.

Mische is critically injured in a targeted attack on the Moon Palace and is withdrawn from the Kejari.

Oraya's Nightfire manifests fully during the Halfmoon trial, burning through surrounding demons and vampires.

During the Crescent trial, Raihn and Oraya discover that Vincent has used his Asteris to obliterate Salinae.

Raihn and Oraya have sex the night before the final trial and promise to fight each other to the end.

Raihn guides Oraya's hand to thrust a blade into his own heart, sacrificing himself so she can win.

Rather than claiming her wish, Oraya asks Nyaxia to alter reality so that Raihn wins the Kejari instead.

Raihn kills Vincent using his new Rishan power and usurps the throne; an Heir Mark blazes on Oraya's chest.

The story begins when the Nightborn King Vincent adopts a human child named Oraya from the ruins of Salinae, setting in motion a decades-long bond built on conditional love and control. As an adult, Oraya enters the brutal Kejari tournament, hoping to win a wish from the vampire goddess Nyaxia so she can find her surviving human family. Inside the Moon Palace, she is forced into an unlikely alliance with the Rishan vampire Raihn, whose strength and loyalty slowly dismantle the walls Vincent built around her heart. As the trials escalate, Oraya's hidden magic awakens, Vincent's brutal war crimes are exposed, and her feelings for Raihn become impossible to deny. In the final trial, Raihn sacrifices his own life so Oraya can win, and she responds by surrendering her wish to bring him back. The reunion turns to betrayal when Raihn reveals his true identity as the Rishan Heir, kills Vincent, and seizes the throne, leaving Oraya bound to him by a forced marriage and a grief she cannot name.

The Kejari's most pivotal moments, from adoption to betrayal.

A young Oraya asks Vincent about her human family; he reveals the Kejari as her path to power.

Oraya kills a Hiaj vampire attacking a young boy during one of her nightly hunts in the human districts.

Ilana gives Oraya a purple silk scarf and urges her to stop diminishing herself to please others.

Vincent and Oraya attend the Kejari welcome feast in Sivrinaj, where Oraya briefly glimpses Raihn for the first time.

The Ministaer gathers all contestants in the great hall and outlines the five trial structure and rules of the Kejari.

Raihn visits Oraya's greenhouse with a healing potion and proposes an alliance she refuses, worsening her injuries.

After Oraya's magic sends Raihn through a window, he accuses her of hiding power; Mische intervenes to stop their argument.

The Waning Moon trial traps Oraya in a labyrinth where she discovers mutilated human bodies and trapped children inside.

Oraya carries a human girl to safety through the labyrinth and escapes through the final gate with Raihn.

Raihn reveals he was once human, apologizes for his behavior toward Oraya, and proposes they train together by hunting vampires.

Vincent orders Oraya to kill the weakened Mische; instead, Oraya secretly bargains with the Ministaer to secure Mische's withdrawal.

Starving and near death during the Crescent trial, Raihn feeds on Oraya's offered blood to survive.

The Ministaer announces the New Moon final trial is moved to the following day, citing the capital city's deterioration.

Oraya confronts Vincent about the destruction of Salinae and realizes he only loves the parts of her he shaped himself.

Raihn reveals he was Turned and enslaved by former Rishan King Neculai and chose to burn away the Heir Mark.

Before the Kejari begins, Oraya's desire to find her surviving human family is planted when a young Vincent explains that the competition could give her the power to reach Rishan territory safely. Once inside the Moon Palace, the rules of the Kejari are laid out, alliances begin to form, and Oraya's refusal of Raihn's first offer of help nearly costs her her life. The Waning Moon trial forces Oraya to confront the brutal reality of what vampires do to humans, and her anger over the human children in the labyrinth creates the first real rift between her and Vincent. As training deepens and Vincent's cruelty toward her allies becomes undeniable, Oraya begins making choices driven by loyalty to Raihn and Mische rather than obedience to her father. The blood-feeding scene in the Crescent trial cave marks the point of no return for her feelings toward Raihn, even as the revelation of Salinae's destruction shatters her hope for a family reunion. By the time the final trial is abruptly moved up, the full scope of Vincent's war crimes hangs over the city and Oraya's world has been irrevocably changed.

The battles, bargains, and alliances that shaped the competition.

Vincent warns young Oraya in the palace that he is the only person she can ever trust, making it her lifelong mantra.

Oraya's teenage vampire lover succumbs to bloodlust during their first sexual encounter and nearly kills her.

During training at the Nightborn Castle, Oraya studies Vincent's Heir Marks and the paintings depicting two centuries of Rishan history.

Raihn returns from Vincent's interrogation badly wounded; Oraya stitches his injuries and refuses to abandon their alliance before the Halfmoon trial.

The Halfmoon trial links Raihn and Oraya's minds and bodies, mirroring each other's wounds as they battle through the arena.

After the Halfmoon trial, Raihn pulls Oraya into an embrace and stares at her as though she is the most incredible thing he has ever seen.

Oraya wears Ilana's purple silk scarf and the Moon Palace's gifted gown to the post-Halfmoon feast, openly defying Vincent's rules.

Raihn reveals that Septimus is a House of Blood prince whose Bloodborn contestants enter the Kejari to regain Nyaxia's lost favor.

On an abandoned rooftop, Raihn urges Oraya not to trade away her humanity and tells her she is perfect exactly as she is.

The Moon Palace stops providing blood to contestants, leaving Raihn dangerously close to losing control of his bloodlust.

During the New Moon trial, Angelika deliberately hesitates to kill Oraya after Raihn secretly makes a deal with Septimus.

Oraya weeps over Raihn's lifeless body in the colosseum, overwhelmed by grief despite having won the Kejari.

A revived Raihn's concealed Heir Mark is exposed as he asks Nyaxia to restore the Rishan Nightborn King's power to him.

In his final moments, Vincent professes his love for Oraya aloud for the first time before dying from Raihn's power.

Jesmine secretly pledges loyalty to Oraya as the Nightborn Hiaj Heir; Raihn and Oraya face hostile nobles and Septimus at court.

Oraya's life is shaped from its earliest moments by Vincent's mantra that she can trust no one but him, a lesson that is only reinforced when her teenage love affair ends in near-fatal betrayal. Inside the Kejari, each trial chips away at that programming as Raihn's warmth, honesty, and unconditional acceptance slowly replace the architecture of fear Vincent built inside her. The Halfmoon trial forges a bond between them that goes far beyond alliance, and by the time Raihn stands in sunlight on the rooftop and tells Oraya she is perfect as she is, her emotional walls have all but fallen. The exposure of Vincent's atrocities forces Oraya to hear her own inner voice for the first time, separate from his, and her act of kissing Raihn in the human slums is the clearest declaration of who she is choosing to become. The final trial strips every remaining pretense away: Raihn dies for her, she surrenders her wish for him, and his resurrection delivers the worst betrayal of her life. Left with a forced marriage, a dead father, and a secret Heir Mark on her own chest, Oraya must decide what kind of ruler she intends to be in a court full of enemies.