After the High Lords’ tense first day of negotiations, Feyre notes the strained personal aftermath among her court. Helion slips away from Mor’s room before dawn, Mor looks emotionally drained despite Cassian’s joking, and Azriel’s distance remains unresolved. Feyre, newly aware of the depth of her love for Rhys, joins the others as they prepare to return to the strategy meeting in deliberately intimidating attire, determined to show the other courts the Night Court’s power.

Back in the meeting chamber, the discussion turns immediately to war logistics. Helion, now all business, says that if Tamlin can gather his remaining forces quickly, Spring and Summer might hold the front long enough for northern armies to arrive. Tamlin angrily admits that only a third of his forces remain and blames Feyre for destroying his people’s faith in him, forcing Feyre to confront the strategic cost of the revenge she took in the Spring Court.

Before the argument can continue, Nesta suddenly lurches to her feet in visible distress. Mor catches her before she falls, Cassian moves to protect her, and Helion and Thesan both examine her with their powers. They find no poison and no physical injury, but Nesta insists that something is wrong not with her, but elsewhere. Her reaction makes clear that whatever she senses is connected to the Cauldron.

Rhys silently directs Azriel and Cassian to move, and then a vast tremor ripples through the earth, air, and stone. The palace shakes under a violent impact, Rhys throws himself over Feyre to shield her, and screams rise from the valley below once the shaking stops. The force of the event confirms that Nesta’s alarm was a supernatural warning rather than an illness.

Using his power to reach across the land, Rhys discovers what happened and turns back in horror. He tells the assembled rulers that the King of Hybern has used the Cauldron to strike the Wall. The Wall has been completely shattered across Prythian and the continent, meaning Hybern has removed the great barrier between faeries and humans and transformed the war into an immediate, far more dangerous crisis.