Violet panicked when a kitchen knife seemed to stab Ridoc, but discovers the blade only sliced his flight jacket. Ridoc subdues the cook with Violet’s dagger, then escorts Violet back to the dining room where Talia sobs, Xaden and Trager work to keep Garrick breathing, and the triumvirate reel from arinmint’s effects. Violet consults her late father’s field guide, identifies fermented zakia berry poisoning, and orders Dain to fetch figs while coordinating water and cups from Aaric and Ridoc.

Violet and the others administer a fig slurry to Garrick within the hour window. After sputtering and several swallows, Garrick regains consciousness, confirming the antidotal effect. Violet taunts Faris that his assumptions about Hedotis’s safety are wrong, warning that venin would target them even without magic. Xaden, enraged, pins Faris to the wall and threatens him, but Violet de-escalates him with firm words, pulling him back from killing a potential ally.

With Dain organizing a rapid departure, Violet confronts Faris, laying out options tied to the arinmint poisoning and four prepared antidote glasses. She reveals how arinmint becomes lethal when combined with tarsilla bark and that Mira controls the house. Violet further pressures Faris by invoking his sons’ safety: she reveals an irid dragon is watching over his sleeping boys at his parents’ house until the group is safely gone, ensuring compliance.

Faris capitulates, drinks the antidote, and tacitly agrees to let them leave under the guise of a new allyship, while Violet frames the relationship through shared bloodline to Aaric, the Duke of Tyrrendor. The team withdraws; Xaden notably avoids acknowledging his mother, Talia, as they exit.

They fly out of Hedotis, hovering until Andarna rejoins them, then follow the trading routes northwest. Violet worries over her choices and the time lost but presses on as they approach the Zehyllna archipelago. The formation holds, with subtle signs that Catriona lags to match Silaraine’s pace, and they finally make landfall over a friendly coastline where people wave instead of threatening them.

Following a river inland, they reach the capital, Xortrys, built around a massive curved waterfall with an amphitheater-like gate area. Crowds gather and cheer as the dragons and gryphons land in formation. Amid the unsettling yet non-hostile reception, Violet and Tairn register a surge of energy—Violet recognizes the sensation as ambient magic saturating the area.