All apothecaries in the Thorn district have been bought out of the lung tonics that keep Evren alive.

A vampire named Bran offers Arvelle a deal: compete in the Sundering and assassinate the emperor in exchange for Evren's cure.

Evren collapses outside their home while Bran watches callously; Arvelle accepts the deal to save her brother's life.

Arvelle manipulates Leon, her late best friend's grieving father, into agreeing to train her for the Sundering.

Bran bites Arvelle, breaks her wrist, and shackles her with a magical bond that prevents her from betraying him.

Arvelle parts ways with her brothers as the vampire Elva escorts them north, while she and Leon travel to the capital.

The emperor's eldest son, Rorrik, publicly disembowels a gladian named Cargyn in the training hall as a warning to potential spies.

The armored Primus removes his helmet in a cleared training hall, revealing himself to be Tiernon, Arvelle's childhood love.

Arvelle defeats the powerful gladian Maximus in her first challenge and persuades the emperor to spare his life, re-injuring her ankle.

Arvelle grants the telepathic griffon Antigrus a merciful death during the second challenge, ending his suffering at the emperor's hands.

Arvelle frees a captive kelpie during the chaotic naval battle and saves a wounded enemy fighter named Calena, winning the third challenge.

Rorrik uses an illusion to trick Arvelle into assassinating Tiberius Cotta, a kind sigilkeeper she believed was the emperor.

Arvelle wins a card game against Rorrik and the imperius, claiming the novice spot in the emperor's elite guard.

Arvelle discovers that her trainer Leon has been attacked and left in critical condition by the ludus's serial killer.

Rorrik arrives on his wyvern during the rebel assault and kills Bran, breaking the magical bond that enslaved Arvelle.

When a powerful vampire named Bran buys up all the medicine keeping her brother Evren alive, Arvelle is coerced into competing in the deadly Sundering trials and assassinating the emperor in exchange for Evren's cure. She manipulates her late best friend's grieving father into training her, is shackled with a magical bond, and is sent to the ludus beneath the capital's arena. There she discovers that the mysterious, armored leader of the emperor's elite guard is Tiernon, the childhood love who vanished from her life six years ago. She survives three brutal challenges—defeating opponents, granting a dying creature mercy, and winning a naval battle—while concealing her true mission from everyone around her. Manipulated by the emperor's sadistic son Rorrik, she unknowingly assassinates an innocent ally rather than the emperor, deepening her entanglement in the empire's deadly politics. The main arc closes when Rorrik kills Bran during a rebel assault on the arena, finally breaking the magical bond that has enslaved Arvelle throughout the trials.

Arvelle's forced journey from desperate bodyguard to arena fighter and reluctant assassin.

Arvelle intervenes when a silver-sigilmarked man named Orson confronts her client Gaius in a tavern over his wife.

A man named Carrick proposes marriage to Arvelle and warns her that a serial killer is removing victims' hearts in the Thorn.

Arvelle's younger brother Gerith tries to attack Bran with a dagger after Bran smashes one of Evren's precious tonic vials.

Arvelle arrives at the underground ludus and has a hostile first encounter with its anonymous armored leader, the Primus.

Baldric and Hester Volker confront Arvelle in the dining hall, vowing revenge for their kinswoman Galia's death in the Sands.

Hester uses magic to make Arvelle's rope slick during training, causing her to fall and scrape her hands raw.

Arvelle stumbles through a hidden wall panel into a network of secret corridors and meets the steward Jorah.

The body of a gladian with a missing heart is discovered in the hall during the gladians' sponsor event, enraging the emperor.

After Arvelle kills Antigrus, an enraged Baldric attacks her and shatters her ankle; Rorrik whispers to the emperor to spare her life.

At the Sundering Ball, Leon tells Arvelle that her late best friend Kassia would be proud of her.

Arvelle follows ghostly voices to the ludus morgue and uses her willpower to free the spirits of murder victims trapped there.

A captive gorgon magically shows Arvelle memories that reveal the ludus serial killer is Albion, a trusted guardant.

Arvelle kills Albion in the ludus library after a desperate fight in which Jorah helps by stabbing him in the shoulder.

During the rebel attack on the arena, Arvelle and Maeva slip into the tunnels and free thousands of captive maginari.

Arvelle brokers a three-way deal with Tiernon and Rorrik: she will translate an ancient book to help stop Mortuus in exchange for her family's freedom.

Before Arvelle is forced into the Sundering, her life in the poverty-stricken Thorn district is defined by violence, desperation, and a marriage proposal from the man who loves her, alongside the first whispers of a serial killer stalking the streets. Her arrival at the ludus brings immediate hostility from rival gladians who vow revenge for old wounds, while a sabotaged training exercise and a growing body count remind her that the dangers extend far beyond the arena floor. Chance discoveries lead her into secret corridors beneath the ludus and a friendship with the fellow gladian Maeva, even as Arvelle struggles to lower her emotional defenses enough to accept help. After surviving all three challenges and the shock of the Sundering Ball, the investigation into the serial murders accelerates, culminating in Arvelle uncovering the killer's identity through the captive maginari and confronting him in a desperate library fight. The novel closes as Arvelle, freed from Bran's control, brokers a fragile three-way deal that transforms her from a coerced pawn into an essential partner in a fight against a rising god.

The encounters, friendships, and hidden dangers that shape Arvelle's path through the trials.

Arvelle witnesses Rorrik secretly soothing a supposedly extinct wyvern in a hidden garden beneath the arena and flees before he catches her.

Arvelle meets Tiberius Cotta at the sponsor event and learns he is a generous sigilkeeper from her neighborhood who offers to sponsor her.

Gerith tells Arvelle via the whispering mirror that his sigil has awakened, granting him a new wind power.

After her second challenge, Arvelle looks in a mirror and sees her long-dormant sigil has grown for the first time.

Arvelle tells Tiernon the full chain of disasters that followed his disappearance, including Kassia's death, Evren's illness, and her mother's suicide.

Tiernon attempts to help Arvelle escape the city at night, but the vampire bond causes her to collapse in agony at the city wall.

At the Sundering Ball, Rorrik reveals he knows about Arvelle's assassination mission and offers to help, claiming the emperor has disinherited him.

Arvelle learns she did not kill the emperor as planned—under Rorrik's illusion, she unknowingly assassinated Tiberius Cotta instead.

Tiernon reveals to Arvelle that he is not merely the Primus but the emperor's younger son and Rorrik's own brother.

Arvelle manifests a powerful griffon ward that shields the entire imperius from a rebel's aether bomb during the attack at the Circus.

Rorrik volunteers to kill the imperium Lucius himself rather than force his brother Tiernon to obey their father's execution order.

Tiernon confesses that the emperor had him tortured for weeks and threatened Arvelle's life to force him to abandon her six years ago.

Arvelle discovers in the hidden library that her long-dormant power allows her to absorb the abilities of anyone she kills.

Bran reveals he is the emperor's illegitimate son and that he engineered the entire plot to frame Tiernon and Rorrik and seize the throne.

By killing a rebel who attacks Rorrik, Arvelle inadvertently absorbs the man's rare ability to read divine languages.

Arvelle's journey through the Sundering is driven by a cascade of discoveries that dismantle everything she believed about her world, her enemies, and her own dormant power. Early glimpses—a hidden wyvern, an awakening sigil, a brother gaining magic—hint that the stakes are far larger than a single assassination, while her growing bond with Tiernon forces her to confront six years of grief built on a false story of abandonment. The revelation that she unknowingly killed an innocent ally instead of the emperor marks the story's darkest turning point, and learning that Tiernon is the emperor's own son reframes every encounter she has had in the ludus. Key discoveries about her unique ability to absorb the powers of those she kills and her capacity to read a divine language no one else can decipher establish her as an irreplaceable figure in a conflict that extends beyond palace politics. The novel closes with the exposure of Bran's true identity as the emperor's illegitimate son and the emergence of a cosmic threat, forcing Arvelle into a new and far more dangerous chapter of her life.

The revelations and emotional turning points that reshape Arvelle's understanding of herself and her world.