Paedyn staggers through the desert on the edge of death, delirious from thirst, exhaustion, and her untreated injuries. She talks to a scorpion, tries to keep herself moving by force of will, and reminds herself that she has survived too much to die in the sand. As the lights of a city finally come into view, she collapses, clutching the vest she has worn in memory of A and surrendering to sleep.

When Paedyn wakes, she realizes someone is carrying her through the dark toward the city. Convinced Kai has found her and is taking her back to Ilya, she prepares to attack before he can kill or capture her. She breaks her rescuer’s wrist, throws him down, and pins him with his own dagger, only to discover he is not Kai but a young guard who claims he found her unconscious and was bringing her to safety.

Embarrassed but still cautious, Paedyn walks with the guard and learns they are entering Dor. When she tries to avoid questions, the guard studies her silver hair and recognizes her as the wanted woman who killed the king, the former Silver Savior. He reveals that Ilya has placed a bounty of twenty thousand silvers on her head, dead or alive, and then attacks her, hoping to collect it.

Already weak and injured, Paedyn struggles to defend herself, but she uses the guard’s broken wrist against him and forces him down. While questioning him, she learns that her identity and bounty are known not only in Dor and Tando but even as far as Izram, destroying any hope that she can easily disappear elsewhere. The guard then seizes an opening, smashes his head back into her face, and nearly strangles her.

To survive, Paedyn drives the guard’s dagger into his heart. Afterward, she is horrified by the blood on her hands and by the fact that she has now killed again, even though she never wanted to become someone who takes lives. Sickened, shaken, and convinced she is turning into a monster, she leaves the body behind and forces herself to keep walking into Dor.