Before sunrise, Odessa stands on the docks with only a few guards and ship stewards as Turan crews prepare three identical ships. Hungry and exhausted because Roan kept her awake all night with maps and theories about Allesaria, she notes that her wedding feast and even basic food and sleep were neglected. Margot changed her into a travel dress and crown, then left her to depart, and Roan went to find breakfast. Odessa waits for family goodbyes that never come, gripping a pendant for comfort as the reality of leaving Roslo and her family sinks in.

Restless, Odessa slips away for a walk. Vendors and workers, startled by her crown, bow and avoid her as she passes the closed paperman’s shop and open stalls. She reflects on the docks’ usual bustle and the impracticality of her crown, joking internally about tossing it into the sea but acknowledging its value.

Hearing men marvel about “seven marroweels,” Odessa follows to a long dock where seven dead marroweels hang from hooks, a direct emblem of the Chain of Sevens that enabled her forced marriage. She studies the iridescent, lethal creatures, finding them both beautiful and tragic, and pricks her finger on a sharp scale.

The Guardian arrives silently and dismisses or drives off her nearby guard, greeting Odessa as “my queen.” He glides down the line of corpses, touching a marroweel without injury, and mocks her crown and luggage. Odessa rebuffs him and calls him a killer, alluding to his murder of Banner’s brother. The air around them changes, charged by his power, which feels like simmering rage rather than Voster magic.

The Guardian intrudes further, implying prurient concern over Odessa’s marital fidelity and potential children, which enrages and embarrasses her. He abruptly spins her and shoves her forward; she stumbles and nearly falls into a marroweel but he catches her by the arm, inadvertently grabbing a tender spot that makes her whimper. He notices and asks after her injury, but she deflects.

He plucks a dyed curl from her shoulder, seems to detect the dye by scent, sneers, and drops it. Finally he snaps his fingers, calls her “Sparrow,” and orders her to come along because she is late, reasserting his authority over her departure for Turah. Odessa suppresses a dark wish to see him drown, ending the scene in hostility and fear under his control.