Held at knifepoint in the rain, Violet goads Theophanie, then headbutts her and breaks free with a kick, retrieving her runed dagger as Theophanie arms herself with a green-tipped poisoned blade. Theophanie taunts Violet about love and weakness, then demonstrates her desiccation magic, rapidly draining the ground’s magic toward Violet. Realizing the only protection is to stand on already drained ground, Violet sprints and climbs onto a nearby wyvern carcass, letting the wave of desiccation pass her by.

As Theophanie summons wyvern, Sgaeyl snatches Violet from the field and flies west, calling her an inconvenience but noting Violet has delayed the Maven. Sgaeyl releases Violet midair, and Tairn arrives in time to catch her and reseat her in the saddle. Tairn reports Mira lives and Teine recovers with Brennan at the pass. Theophanie retreats south with venin, including an enormous wyvern larger than Codagh, while Tairn shares his farsight view before Violet’s vision returns to normal.

Recognizing the need to thin the horde threatening Draithus, Violet orders the riot to the city’s airspace and unleashes repeated, large-scale lightning strikes from the storm, guided by Carr’s teachings. She and Tairn cut down waves of wyvern—Tairn calling out the tallies—until her strength flags and he forces her to recuperate with water to avoid burning out. They then dive for the line of venin riders, killing an ice-wielding venin with a precise bolt as others flee.

Theophanie counters by dropping a tornado north of the field, steering it toward Draithus. Tairn bellows for all riders to ground due to the storm threat, even as Violet searches the sky for Xaden and Sgaeyl but finds only silence behind his wall in the bond and notes Sgaeyl has withdrawn from Tairn. Cuir, despite having extracted Bodhi earlier, is seen reengaging above the city, and Glane and Cath hold the northern wall.

Molvic arrives from the southern valleys, bringing the Zehyllna advance party—one thousand soldiers who mistakenly landed at Soudra and will reach Draithus in under half an hour—offering hope if the city can hold. Violet acknowledges they must drive wyvern to the ground for infantry to be effective and delegates aerial defense to their allies despite the grounding order where necessary.

Committed to the primary mission from Kaori’s orders—occupy or kill Theophanie—Violet directs Tairn to pursue the Maven into the mountains. The chapter closes with Violet rejecting Theophanie’s moral manipulations and choosing the single objective: “Fly for Theophanie.”