Treila looks at Ser Voyne’s dead body and realizes that she has killed a mortal woman, not the Loving Saint. Overwhelmed by intense and competing emotions, Treila weeps. Hearing a sound, she hides, leaving her iron knife still stuck in Voyne’s throat. Treila hides and watches the Loving Saint and the Absolving Saint as they inspect Voyne’s body. With the help of servants, they carry Voyne away.

Phosyne is still sitting on the throne when the Lady enters. The Lady alludes to Phosyne’s hunger for power and dominance, making the latter uncomfortable (since she knows these comments are at least partially true). The Lady also comments on Phosyne abandoning Jacynde, who is now dead. The Lady tries to negotiate with Phosyne, promising her potential power and freedom. She asks for Phosyne’s name and Phosyne hesitates, sensing that sharing her name will place her in the Lady’s power. Phosyne is confused as to why the Lady wants to dominate her when she already possesses so much power. As Phosyne moves to leave, the Lady tells her that Voyne is dead. Horrified, Phosyne takes the Lady’s outstretched hand.

Treila deduces that the servants are carrying Voyne’s body to the chapel and makes her way there. Voyne is laid on a plinth wearing the Warding Saint’s armor, although the Warding Saint himself conspicuously absent. The Loving and Absolving Saints guard the door. The Lady arrives with Phosyne. Treila hides and listens to the conversation between the Lady and Phosyne. The Lady explains that Voyne killed the Warding Saint and states that she does not know who killed Voyne. The Lady offers Phosyne anything she desires in exchange for the body: As long as the iron knife remains in Voyne’s throat, the Lady and the saints cannot touch the body. Only Phosyne can remove the knife, which is why the Lady must bargain. Phosyne tells everyone to leave so that she can think, and the Lady and the saints reluctantly withdraw. 

 Phosyne (who knows Treila is hiding and observing) tells her to come out. Treila confesses to killing Voyne. Phosyne confesses in turn that she forced Voyne to kneel before her in the throne room. The two women discuss what to do next; Phosyne tells Treila to carry Voyne to the tunnel while she provides a diversion. Treila enters the tunnels, dragging Voyne’s body with her. She descends to the cavern; she and Voyne are safe here because the Lady and the saints are not able to pass through the tunnel. Overcome with grief, Treila pulls the iron knife from Voyne’s throat.

The removal of the knife resurrects Voyne. She wakes in the cavern, healed and clear-headed, with Treila watching her. Voyne reveals a misunderstanding: Treila’s father was not executed for shorting the king on salt, as Treila had always believed, but for selling the fortress of Carcabonne to Etrebia—a betrayal that caused a massacre. Cardimir justified the execution with a false crime to avoid appearing weak. Treila, whose quest for vengeance rested on this false understanding, is devastated.

Treila urges escape, but Voyne refuses, arguing that too many people remain in Aymar, and Phosyne cannot be abandoned. Voyne sends Treila to take the knife to Phosyne, hopeful that the latter will be able to use it. Treila reluctantly agrees but tells Voyne that if she does not return, Voyne should negotiate with the creature who guards the crevice, escape from the castle, and never come back.

Treila climbs through the tunnel back into the castle and enters the great hall, where the castle population is gathered in mindless celebration around the body of King Cardimir. Standing next to the Lady, Phosyne is dismembering and butchering the body. Phosyne notices Treila but continues, handing portions to the Absolving Saint.

Treila slips outside and Phosyne follows. After confirming that Voyne is safely hidden in the cavern, Phosyne tries to claim that butchering Cardimir was the promised distraction. Treila questions whether Phosyne can still be trusted but gives her the iron knife. Phosyne takes it and returns inside, promising that she can still be trusted. Before Treila can leave the courtyard, the Loving Saint approaches her. He intuits that she has been able to remove the knife from Voyne’s throat. 

Treila flees desperately, pursued by the Loving Saint and the monstrous creatures. She fights with the Loving Saint and then has a mystical vison, understanding her true essence as something immutable, “the result of every time she refused to abandon herself, no matter the guise she chose to wear” (298). This realization of her inner power subdues the Saint, lessening his ability to hurt her. She tears his throat open with her teeth, then commands the creatures to feed on his body. They obey, and she walks free.

Phosyne (with the knife hidden in her robes) sits in the great hall and watches the inhabitants of the castle feast on King Cardimir’s remains. Phosyne sits with Ser Leodegardis, who retains enough awareness to understand what he is eating. Phosyne leaves and makes her way to the throne room, where the Lady sits enthroned. Phosyne offers her the iron knife: She has deduced that the Lady was never interested in Voyne’s body but needed the knife (the true object of her desire) to be removed. In exchange for the knife, Phosyne asks for dominion over the castle and all lives within it. The Lady agrees and takes the knife without being harmed. Too late, Phosyne realizes that Lady was able to invade the castle after Aymar used nearly all of its iron in a previous siege: The absence of iron left them vulnerable. By giving the Lady the knife, she has surrendered one of the last pieces of protection and empowered her. 

The Lady transfers dominion by pressing her lips to Phosyne’s forehead. Awareness of every life in the castle floods into Phosyne, awakening a vast and consuming hunger for power. The transfer of dominion grants Phosyne power over the Lady herself and Phosyne realizes with relief that the Lady “cannot leave so long as Phosyne remembers to hold Her leash” (306). 

The Lady seductively tries to persuade Phosyne to give in to her longing for power and offers to guide her through her new powers in exchange for her name. Overwhelmed, Phosyne tells the Lady her name.

In the cavern, Voyne addresses the creature in the crack. She asks about the bargains it previously struck with Treila and the creature refuses to clarify what it will ask for in exchange for Treila passing through the crack again. The creature explains it was summoned to Aymar at the castle’s founding and sustained since on the blood of its battles. It considers the invaders (the Lady and the saints) to be enemies because they abhor iron while it is made of iron. The creature tells Voyne that a broken tip of Treila’s blade (still lodged in her throat) rendered her immune to the invaders’ influence. The creature provides Voyne with magical protection, solidifying her armor into genuine steel and gives her a mandate: Destroy the invaders and restore order in the castle. Voyne accepts.

As a storm rages, Treila rushes back into the tunnels and reunites with Voyne in the cavern. She notices that Voyne’s armor now looks different. Treila confirms that she gave Phosyne the knife, but thinks they need to leave immediately. Treila tries to summon the creature who guards the crevice so she can begin negotiating for passage but she gets no response. Voyne gently explains that she has already struck a bargain: they need to stay and fight. Together they return to the throne room, although Treila cautions that Phosyne may now be one of the enemies.

In the throne room, Voyne retrieves her sword from Jacynde’s corpse. They climb to Phosyne’s tower, where Phosyne stands with the Lady. When Phosyne sees Voyne, she cries out.

Voyne drives her sword through the Lady, but it causes no lasting harm. Phosyne pleads with Voyne and Treila to run; Voyne’s iron armor will no longer protect her. Under the force of enchantment, Phosyne holds Treila out of the way as the Lady confronts Voyne. Phosyne deduces that Treila has killed one of the saints without the aid of iron (she can smell the Loving Saint’s blood on her). The Lady attempts to stab Voyne with the iron knife but Treila breaks free and shoves Voyne aside, taking the brunt of the injury. 

Voyne and Phosyne rush to Treila’s side to inspect her injury. The Lady offers a magical apple, urging Treila to eat it; Phosyne knows that the apple would heal the wound but that it will also permanently alter Treila’s personality and nature. Voyne begins battling with the Lady, who uses magic to assume a shadowy, shifting form that is difficult to discern. Treila must direct Voyne’s actions, since she can still perceive the Lady, but she is growing weaker as she loses blood. Hoping to mitigate the effects of the magical apple while still harnessing its curative powers, Phosyne chews the apple and presses the pulp against Treila’s wound, which instantly heals. 

Treila and Voyne are too injured and weakened to keep fighting, and the Lady’s victory seems assured. Phosyne realizes that the dominion that the Lady granted her enables her to have some measure of control. The Lady tries to compel Phosyne into submission by speaking her name, but Phosyne realizes that her name does not truly define her: She is able to resist the Lady’s magical power (the narrative begins referring to her as “the nameless woman”). As they continue to fight, the Lady and Phosyne magically plunge through the stone floor into the cistern of water below. Phosyne uses her powers to heat the water and summon magical creatures to appear and attack. Voyne and Treila haul Phosyne back up and out of the boiling water; Treila slaps her and repeats her name until she becomes lucid and magically seals the Lady in the scalding cistern.

Although the Lady is now dead, Phosyne is terrified of the lust for power that has been unleashed and remains within her (since she holds dominion over the castle and its inhabitants). She begs Voyne to kill her.

Voyne asserts her role as Phosyne’s minder and protector, promising to restore Phosyne to her former self. Treila assures her that Voyne will kill her if necessary, but she believes there is still hope for Phosyne to be saved. Voyne carries Phosyne to the throne room with Treila walking alongside them. Treila explains that Etrebian forces have retreated, and that they will be free if they can get out of the castle. 

In the throne room, Voyne sits on the throne, with Treila standing behind her. Phosyne lays on the floor in front of them and Voyne encourages her to crawl toward them and kneel. Voyne tells Phosyne to swear fealty and receive protection in return as part of “a relationship we can negotiate” (336). Phosyne kneels and formally transfers mastery of the castle and all its lives to Voyne. The storm immediately stops and the castle stills. The three women slump in relief, gently touching one another. 

The Absolving Saint enters and offers the iron knife (he retrieved it from the kitchen after it passed from the cistern through the pipes of the castle). He explains that he and the few surviving magical creatures want to leave now that they have been defeated, but they need permission from Voyne to do so (she now holds the dominion that Phosyne transferred to her). Treila explains that the knife gives the saints immunity to the effects of iron (that is why the Lady became more powerful once she had it). If the Absolving Saint surrenders the knife in exchange for being allowed to leave the castle, the balance of power will return to what it once was. 

Voyne agrees but adds an additional condition: the Absolving Saint will use magic to ensure that the survivors in the castle never regain memory of what happened and the atrocities they committed during the period of enchantment. The Absolving Saint agrees, and hands over the iron knife. Then he leaves. 

The survivors sleep peacefully in the yard. Phosyne notes the people will remember the strange events in the castle as a miracle, leaving the three women’s roles in it unrecorded. Voyne, Treila, and Phosyne walk through the castle gate into a clear autumn day.