Margot drives a frantic preparation in Odessa’s rooms, demanding a blue wedding dress that does not exist while Brielle cycles through Odessa’s exclusively gray wardrobe. Over four hours, Margot, Brielle, and Jocelyn complete Odessa’s bridal grooming and pack three trunks for her imminent move to Turah, including hair dyes to maintain Odessa’s brunette appearance per Zavier’s preference. Despite Margot’s insistence on blue, Odessa chooses a pale gray gown—the color of mourning—underscoring her dread.

Amid crashes from Mae’s adjoining room, Margot bluntly tells Odessa she must bed Zavier to keep him content and unwary. Odessa rebuffs explicit advice but listens as Margot stresses the need to please the prince to mask ulterior motives. Odessa contemplates Turah’s isolation, the destroyed former capital of Perris, the hidden mountain stronghold Allesaria, and the rare chance her infiltration offers to pierce Turah’s secrecy. She suspects Zavier’s bride prize has deeper motives and worries he already watches closely.

When Margot leaves, Odessa asks to see her little brother, Arthalayus, before departing. Alone, she accesses a hidden floor compartment in her closet discovered in childhood. She stows a blank leather journal, intended now for notes on Turah and the Guardian, and retrieves a mysterious necklace: a silver wing set in a red-orange “golden” circle, a symbol she has never identified despite years of searching. She hides the warmed pendant inside her dress, determined to keep it with her until she feels safe.

Mae arrives, unapologetic for wrecking her room, and vents that her lifelong training and hopes of queenship were stolen. The sisters trade blunt truths—Mae wants to be queen; Odessa does not—and briefly reconcile. Mae admits Odessa looks beautiful and asks if Odessa will miss her; they embrace, with Odessa extracting a promise that Mae will hug Arthalayus in her absence.

Their conversation turns tactical. Mae warns that Turans will never trust Odessa and that she must not be fooled by kindness; she doubts Odessa’s aptitude for espionage and urges ruthlessness. They exchange I love yous, recognizing the gravity of their separation and the mission now placed on Odessa.

King Roan and Margot enter, and Mae hardens her posture. Roan criticizes the lack of a blue dress, then conducts a stark ritual-like act by cutting Odessa’s palm and collecting her blood in a vial, binding the next steps toward the marriage. Odessa steels herself, watches blood seep through the bandage, and takes a last look at Roslo bathed in sunset, grimly concluding that before the sun sets she will be a wife, even as she fleetingly wishes she had drowned earlier to escape her fate.