Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months and supplies are dwindling. Fifteen days of food remain; the fortress holds nearly 900 people. The Castle is besieged by enemy forces from the kingdom of Etrebia. Phosyne has been charged with using magic to provide nourishment but her experiments (attempting to transport food through stone, accelerate seed germination, propagate plants) have all failed; her sole success is having purified the castle’s fouled water supply. Phosyne secretly shares her meager stores of food with two magical serpentine creatures, Ornuo and Pneio.

King Cardimir confronts Phosyne about her lack of progress. He reports that Prioress Jacynde’s Order has declared it impossible to create food from nothing. A mob forming around the kitchen garden interrupts them; from the window Phosyne watches a female knight, Ser Voyne, draw her sword to disperse the crowd. Cardimir assigns Voyne as Phosyne’s minder, hoping that strict supervision will speed her progress in the quest of making food appear.

Immediately after the riot at the kitchen garden, Ser Voyne (a war hero who is now a knight in the king’s guard) attends a council debate about what to do next.