Alarms sound in Aretia as Tairn reports a horde only minutes out. Violet and Xaden arm up in Riorson House and converge with Brennan, who confirms only six patrol riders are out and key generals (Suri and Ulices) are absent. With retired and active riders undermanned due to redeployments in Tyrrendor, Xaden takes overall command despite not being the ranking officer on site. Brennan proposes a layered defense: officers 2–5 miles east, older riders to city gates, cadets to the wardstone. Xaden adjusts, splitting retired riders between wardstone defense and aiding civilians, and assigns Violet to the city wall.

Second- and third-year cadets volunteer to fight under Dain Aetos, and Rhiannon positions third-years (including Violet) at the east gate’s wall with altitude sectors assigned. Xaden orders Bodhi to stay sheltered as heir-preservation for Tyrrendor, leading to a heated argument before they part. Xaden and Violet exchange a brief, urgent goodbye before he departs to the officers’ line. Aaric intercepts Violet, pleading that she protect Dunne’s temple outside the walls, insisting it is how to save Tyrrendor; Violet refuses, citing citywide priorities and orders.

Violet mounts Tairn as dragons and gryphons scramble across the city. Using her conduit, she channels Tairn’s power to throw sustained lightning into the cloud base, revealing many pairs of gray-winged wyvern approaching in small arcs to test the wards. Seeing the risk of wielding near civilians, Tairn urges Violet to push out from the walls; Rhiannon hesitates but then pairs with them forward while others hold the defense line.

Beyond the wards, the sky is dark and chaotic. Tairn uses his black scales to ambush and shred a wyvern, while Feirge’s flame exposes another, which Feirge seizes by the throat. Tairn smashes into its tail and executes a roll that snaps the wyvern’s neck, though the maneuver leaves Violet nauseated. Back at the wall, fallen bodies have damaged the north gate and created a hole, but the wards remain unbreached. Violet senses Xaden only as an icy onyx barrier, and Tairn reports Sgaeyl is coping, indicating the officers’ line is heavily engaged to the east, where orange and green fire burn.

Tairn spots four wyvern skimming low toward a lone building outside the walls where Andarna guards the wardstone. Violet and Tairn dive. Violet channels and splits a massive lightning strike, incinerating the lead pair mid-flight. As the flames peel back, one of the remaining wyvern is revealed to carry a silver-haired rider, signaling a coordinated enemy incursion with mounted dark wielders.

In the immediate aftermath of the strike, Tairn drops onto the nearest wyvern to intercept. He bellows in pain as the melee tightens at low altitude near the wardstone, leaving Violet braced in the saddle and the battle’s outcome unresolved at chapter’s end.