Oraya wakes in Mische’s room, still groggy from the Ministaer’s venom, and finds Raihn sitting beside the injured Mische. When he silently draws Oraya into the next room, she sees that his back has been brutally flayed during questioning after the Moon Palace attack. The sight shocks her not only because of the torture itself, but because Vincent had promised not to break Raihn, and this evidence forces Oraya to feel the first real crack in her trust in him.

Raihn confirms that his wings were not taken only because he refused to reveal them, though Oraya realizes the wounds may still keep him from using them. Using Mische’s medical supplies, Oraya disinfects and stitches his back while Raihn explains what the interrogators wanted: proof that he and the Rishan were behind the attack. Raihn insists the Rishan are too fractured to have organized it and says he does not believe they destroyed the Moon Palace. Oraya also tells him that Mische has been allowed to withdraw from the Kejari, and Raihn quickly guesses that Oraya made that happen.

As Oraya works, Raihn speaks about Mische’s deeper suffering. He reveals that before she was turned, Mische had been a human priestess of Atroxus in Pachnai who came to Sivrinaj as a missionary. Her maker abandoned her after turning her, and the sun magic she kept using as a vampire was slowly hurting her; during the recent attack she tried to call on Atroxus again and was met with silence. This explains both her despair and the old burns on her arms, and it deepens Oraya’s anger at vampire cruelty. Raihn admits that he is sometimes ashamed to be one of them, and when Oraya asks what turning was like, he says it felt like death.

After finishing the stitches, Oraya notices an older scar down Raihn’s back, but he refuses to explain it. Raihn then spots the bandage on Oraya’s wrist and presses her for the truth, but she dismisses it as a minor injury from the attack. Oraya gives him pain tablets and apologizes for what was done to him. When Raihn offers her a chance to choose another partner for the Halfmoon trial because his injuries make him a burden, Oraya refuses immediately and says he is stuck with her. Their touch lingers, and both understand that their growing intimacy exists only in the narrow space before the trial ends and they become enemies again.

Later, Raihn carries a protesting Mische out of the Moon Palace to friends who can hide and care for her away from Sivrinaj. In a fragile goodbye, Mische encourages Oraya to keep developing her shy magic and to watch over Raihn because he needs someone and likes her. Only hours afterward, Oraya and Raihn are summoned with the other contestants for the Halfmoon trial. Oraya notes the new pairings, including damaged Rishan forced together after the torture, and sees how badly Raihn is still hurt even as he hides it. Instead of being transported immediately, Nyaxia’s acolytes circulate with silver goblets and silently compel each pair to drink a foul dark liquid, introducing a mysterious new element just before the next trial begins.