After Tairn crash-lands in the prairie grass from the wyvern attack, Violet scrambles to assess his injuries while Feirge chases Theophanie's wyvern. Violet orders Andarna to call Feirge back, knowing they can't match a Maven like Theophanie. Xaden pierces through Violet's mental shields to check on her, and she reassures him she's fine and warns him Theophanie is present. Tairn reveals a wingspur is embedded in his hind leg—half Violet's size—making it nearly impossible for him to launch. Meanwhile, Andarna has positioned herself at the steps of Dunne's temple, having taken Aaric's earlier suggestion to protect it. Violet confronts Andarna about disobeying orders, but Andarna pushes back, questioning whether she's living up to what's expected of her. Violet tells Andarna she doesn't need her to be anything but who she is.

Rhiannon jogs over and uses her signet to telekinetically extract the massive wingspur from Tairn's leg. Before they can retreat behind the wards, three wyvern approach with more behind them. Dozens of white-haired temple attendants and their high priestess refuse to take shelter, declaring that Dunne either protects them or they die as her servants. Violet decides to make her stand at the temple, wielding lightning from the ground while Tairn and Andarna guard the perimeter. The priestess notices Violet's silver-streaked hair and asks if she uses the same treatment as the attendants, but Violet says it grows naturally, leaving the implication hanging.

Theophanie appears at the base of the temple steps on foot, flanked by two red-robed venin, and offers to let everyone live if Violet comes with her. The high priestess calls Theophanie a heretic, and Violet realizes from the faded forehead tattoo that Theophanie was once a priestess of Dunne herself, and that her silver hair matches the attendants'. Andarna blasts fire at Theophanie, but it has no effect. Before the confrontation escalates, Theophanie's gaze fixes on something in the sky behind Violet and she panics, ordering the other venin to flee. They clasp hands and vanish in a single step, similar to Garrick's ability.

Four wyvern descend in formation toward the temple. Violet strikes the lead wyvern with lightning, but then a wave of magic washes over everything—the remaining three wyvern fall lifelessly from the sky. One massive carcass skids toward the temple steps, and Feirge knocks Andarna out of its path just in time. The wyvern crashes into the marble stairs and a central pillar, sending deadly chunks of marble flying. Violet tries to deflect them with lesser magic, but it's Xaden's shadows that catch and gently lower every piece of debris. Xaden arrives, bloodied but unharmed, and embraces Violet. He explains that Sgaeyl refused to hold position once she felt Tairn's wound, and that the wards went up just as they arrived.

The mystery of the sudden ward activation and the wyvern's mid-flight deaths is answered when a dragon materializes nearby—Leothan, an iridescent dragon whose scales shift from black to purple and whose horns carry the same swirling pattern as Andarna's. Leothan announces he fired Aretia's wardstone. The irids—the legendary seventh breed of dragon—have arrived, and Violet realizes the enormity of this moment as her stomach drops.