The island is a prison, but the spindle and the entity sense it possesses unknown magic. Julnar uses the island’s enchantments to build a sturdy house for herself and Pares. The young Pares finds a vast playground on the island. Bit by bit, Julnar begins to rebuild the land. She remembers her old name, the first name of the entity: Lab. From here on, she goes by that name. Over the years, she builds a home and learns to survive, finding a strange peace in the isolation. The magic of the island is different, and the spindle she carries feels lifeless, so she hides it away. As Pares grows into a lonely adolescent, he becomes desperate to leave and builds a raft. Lab argues with him, her resistance rooted in her terror of the sea—fear of losing the spindle to the deep and memories of the pirates who destroyed her first family—as well as the dangers of the outside world. When he remains defiant, she burns his raft with a snap of her fingers. Pares is heartbroken. Sometime later, their isolation ends when the first shipwrecked people wash ashore.

Amina returns to her duties at court but finds herself treated with cold hostility by everyone except Orinth. Raksh now assists Amina in the Chamber of Mysteries, but he is uncharacteristically placid and bored, leading Amina to suspect he has been enchanted. Raksh wears a beautiful crimson and black belt which he tells Amina is a gift from Lab. She gets rid of him by challenging him to arrange a romantic picnic.

Alone with Amina, Orinth grows serious. She warns that Queen Lab has taken a special interest in Dalila, giving her gifts such as a rosary necklace, and that the last time Lab took a favorite was before Orinth was born. Being Lab’s favorite is a doubled-edged sword, with the favorites often suffering an untold fate. Notably, Orinth appears older than Lab—a detail that leads Amina to deduce aloud that Lab is immortal and has been the sole ruler of Khatti Ugal for generations, a conclusion Orinth meets with guilty silence rather than denial. As they speak, Prince Pares appears nearby. Though he supposedly does not understand their language, Orinth becomes frightened when she sees him and notes with dread that he has received his “rites” at a young age.

Worried by Orinth’s warning, Amina spends the night exploring the underground tunnels. Following a flow of colored dye, she discovers a massive textile workshop. Inside, women work silently and robotically at looms made of antler, weaving with unnaturally vivid thread. Dominating the room is a vast, shimmering fabric that appears to be alive and incorporates the unique patterns of the dyed garments worn by Lab’s subjects, including Raksh’s belt. Amina notes that the spinning itself is done elsewhere; a woman brings in baskets of freshly spun thread and leaves with prepared wool. Amina resolves to follow her the next night.

The following day, Mitanni informs Amina that Lab considers her a bad influence on Dalila, who now intends to remain in Khatti Ugal. Instead of taking her to the archives, Mitanni leads Amina to a courtyard containing a perfect miniature replica of the Marawati. He reveals she is to train a dozen young Khatti Ugalan men, among them her acquaintance Arno, to serve as a new portion of her crew.

After the unsettling lesson, Amina goes to see Orinth but finds the Chamber of Mysteries open and unguarded. Orinth’s office has been ransacked, and a distressed goat is trapped inside. Amina recognizes Orinth’s green eyes and realizes with horror that the queen has transformed her friend into an animal. Arno arrives and, oblivious to the truth, remarks that Orinth was called away due to a sick mother before dragging the goat out. Enraged and horrified by Lab’s cruel warning, Amina vows to fight back.

Lab’s narration continues as two shipwrecked sailors arrive on the island. She, Pares, and the men, form a small community, and Lab takes the captain as her lover. The sailors, however, remain focused on escaping. One of them ignores Lab’s warnings about the griffins, goes into the hills, and is disemboweled—still clinging to life when the captain and Pares bring him back to her door.

As the man lies dying, Lab retrieves her spindle. She discovers her magic has changed on the island; she can no longer see the future but can senses the man’s soul. Using the spindle, she tethers his spirit to his body, reanimating him as a puppet who obeys her commands. This man becomes Mitanni. Horrified by this display of unnatural magic, Pares and the captain beg Lab not to perform it again. She lies, agreeing, but keeps the spindle hidden on her person at all times—not for protection, but because it is too precious to risk and is, to her, more truly herself than her mortal form.

Fueled by anger over Orinth’s fate, Amina follows the path from the textile workshop to a small, ancient cottage. Peeking inside, she discovers the object of her quest: a simple, ancient wood spindle. Queen Lab is intimately teaching Dalila how to use the artifact, the wooden spindle glowing with an ethereal light as they spin thread together. Amina feels a fresh wave of betrayal, wondering how long Dalila has known about the spindle and why she would embrace its magic. She overhears Lab express concern over Dalila’s poor health, promising that soon she will have nothing to worry about. Rather than act, Amina stays her hand, weighing whether she could even break the spindle and whether it is truly the source of Lab’s magic, and slips away before Lab can rise.

The next day, Amina confronts Dalila in her new, well-equipped laboratory. Dalila is dismissive of Amina’s warnings about her relationship with the queen. When Amina reveals she has seen the spindle, Dalila panics and tells her to be quiet, refusing to explain her plan and insisting Amina is better off not knowing. Their argument escalates, and Dalila finally reveals the deal she has struck: She herself will cure Amina’s poison and allow the crew to leave, and in exchange, Dalila will remain in Khatti Ugal forever. She demands that Amina obey the queen and not interfere. When Amina says she no longer trusts her, Dalila summons guards and has Amina escorted away, publicly implying she is unstable and drunk.

Feeling trapped, Amina devises a desperate plan. That night, she cuts off her long hair. Raksh enters her room unexpectedly, and to distract him from the shorn locks on the floor, she seduces him. Their physical encounter is uncharacteristically rough and brief, and she notes he refuses to remove the dyed belt Lab gave him. To confirm her suspicions that his mind has been altered, she tells him a fabricated story about their wedding night, which he falsely claims to remember. She also realizes, registering it consciously for the first time, that Raksh has not mentioned the peris once since he arrived—a telling absence, given that he had all but brokered her original agreement with them. When he begins questioning her motives for being on the island, Amina recognizes he is likely spying for Lab and uses further intimacy to deflect his inquiries.

Amina is now confined to her quarters except for her sailing lessons. Every night, she sneaks into the tunnels and places strands of her shorn hair into the baskets of wool destined for the spindle, hoping to corrupt the magic of the great fabric. Soon, her sabotage appears to work as Khatti Ugal begins to unravel; entire palace wings disappear, and chaos spreads. The disruption culminates when a pair of tattooed young shield bearers have a public breakdown: The sister buries a spear in her own throat, and when both siblings tear away their cloaks, their bodies dissolve into dust. Other Khatti Ugalans in dyed cloaks then begin voluntarily removing their own shrouds and vanishing. Amina realizes that most of the people of Khatti Ugal are the reanimated dead, their souls bound to magical shrouds.

That evening, Mitanni informs Amina she must attend a ceremony for Dalila’s initiation into the Khatti Ugalan faith. At the event, one of the silent handmaids secretly helps Amina hide her weapons beneath her ceremonial clothing. Amina confronts Dalila, who confirms she knows the truth about the shrouds but warns her not to interfere. The ceremony concludes with Lab presenting Dalila with a specially woven belt. As Lab fastens it around her waist, Dalila appears suddenly revitalized and triumphant, ignoring Amina completely.