Morning finds Odessa reading on the balcony wearing Ransom’s tunic, reflecting on their intimate night. They banter about sleep, and Odessa reads Ransom a Calandran folklore tale about Sonnet of Laine (Sonnets Ninety), which Ransom had read in Allesaria’s library. Odessa probes about Allesaria and suggests Lyssa might have originated there or that its end might be found there; Ransom refuses to reveal details, likely bound by a blood oath, and insists the Voster are not the enemy.

Odessa argues for hope and a possible cure despite Ransom’s claim that the priests say Lyssa is incurable. They compromise emotionally: Odessa keeps her hope while Ransom focuses on the hunts. Their flirtation turns to planned intimacy but is interrupted when Zavier arrives with word from a pony rider who saw a pack of bariwolves an hour away. Odessa suggests testing whether she draws monsters, but Ransom refuses. He arms himself and leaves with Zavier to hunt.

Odessa, restless, arms herself with Ransom’s gifted dagger, fetches breakfast, and walks through Turah, buoyed by thoughts of a future where a cure ends secrecy and danger. She resolves to seek help from healers, chemists, and scholars if the Voster cannot cure Lyssa.

Outside the infirmary, one of the two unconscious men brought from Treow staggers into the street, feverish with a gauze-wrapped arm. When Odessa tries to help, he seizes her throat and chokes her, muttering that he is burning inside and repeating a compulsion to “kill her,” and referencing an oath to serve his king and burn. He exhibits unnatural strength and dull green-starburst eyes while Odessa loses air and consciousness.

As soldiers shout and run to intervene, Odessa, failing and near blacking out, claws into her satchel, draws her dagger, and slashes the man’s throat. She collapses, hacking and gasping on the ground as the attacker bleeds out without resisting, smiling with foam at his mouth. His eyes turn milky white and his body seems to steam as life drains away. Odessa, shaken, realizes she has killed him, noting his dark-green blood soaking the earth.