While riding through the desert at night, Kai notices how exhausted and underfed Paedyn is as she sleeps against him. Even as he reminds himself that she is his prisoner and his father’s murderer, he stops the group to camp for the rest of the night. When Kai wakes Paedyn and helps her down from the horse, their usual taunting resumes, especially when Kai tells her she will be sleeping beside him so he can keep watch over her.

By the fire, Kai’s attention lingers on how ordinary Paedyn is supposed to be and how little she fits the image he has been taught to fear. Their conversation shifts into an argument about Ilya’s history. Kai pushes Paedyn to explain what she knows about the Plague, the rise of the Elites, the kingdom’s isolation, the banishment of Ordinaries, and the belief that Ordinaries carry a disease that weakens Elite powers and that mixing between the groups will end the Elite race.

Paedyn makes clear that she understands the official version of history but rejects its moral logic. She calls Ilya’s system greed and argues that the Elites were never meant to wield such power, that isolation has already made the kingdom weak, and that Ordinaries deserve to live whether or not the disease is real. Kai defends the need for Elite power to protect Ilya from conquest, but Paedyn counters that the kingdom is already collapsing from hunger, hatred, and the lack of allies. Kai realizes she likely once hoped Kitt might change Ilya, but Kai privately believes Kitt will only continue their father’s rule.

As the conversation fades, Paedyn quietly asks whether Kai believes she is diseased. Kai says he trusts the Healers, while Paedyn says her Healer father doubted the claim and insists that she deserves to live either way. When the desert cold makes her shiver, Kai gets her an extra blanket and, despite their bickering, keeps her close after she complains that her feet are freezing. The moment of uneasy warmth is cut short when arrows suddenly rain into the camp before dawn, waking Kai to an ambush. As he prepares to fight, he feels a blade at his neck and hears Paedyn threaten him with the dagger she had secretly stolen.