After returning from the Hewn City, Feyre and the others find Mor devastated by Rhysand’s secret bargain with Keir and his covert cooperation with Eris. Mor accuses Rhysand of endangering Velaris by inviting Keir’s influence into her home, and the argument sharpens when Rhysand says that if even Amarantha herself offered a chance to defeat Hybern, he would accept it. Amren intervenes before the group fully fractures, warning that wartime alliances are not forgiveness, and Feyre urges everyone to hold together because their enemies will defeat them if they divide from within.

The conversation shifts when Cassian asks about the mirror, and Feyre explains that the Ouroboros is said to break or drive mad anyone who looks into it. Amren immediately recognizes the name and realizes Feyre and Rhysand went to the Prison to bargain with the Bone Carver. After Lucien quietly removes himself, Rhysand presses Amren to explain how she escaped the Prison so they might free the Bone Carver, and Azriel silently positions himself behind her with Truth-Teller in case she turns dangerous.

Under Feyre’s shield of silence, Amren finally reveals the truth: no one freed her from the Prison. To escape, she bound her vast original essence into a mortal-like body the Prison could no longer recognize, sacrificing her former perfect immortality and becoming capable of pain, desire, regret, and attachment. She says she was once a messenger and soldier-assassin for a wrathful god in another world, and she warns that freeing the Bone Carver would require forcing him into a physical body, something he would likely refuse without the Ouroboros.

Elain then appears in the hall, drawn by something only she can perceive. She says she can hear a female figure crying, insists that everyone thinks this person is dead when she is actually alive but changed, and then describes disturbing images: young hands withering, a box of black stone, and a feather of fire melting snow. Her words suggest prophetic sight rather than madness, and Azriel vanishes at once, apparently to investigate what her vision might mean, while Mor watches his departure.

Later, Feyre questions Nesta about what happened with Amren in the Hewn City and learns that Amren had been testing her against magical defenses, likely related to repairing the wall. Nesta admits she failed and bitterly wonders whether Elain’s suffering is the price of her own survival. Lucien gently asks Feyre to let a healer examine Elain, and Feyre agrees to summon Madja. Alone in bed, overwhelmed and exhausted, Feyre breaks down until Rhysand joins her; he confesses that he regrets how he handled Mor and admits that despite his earlier words, if Amarantha ever appeared again, he would kill her immediately.