Oraya meets Vincent after delaying their visit for a day because she could not face him after seeing the human child in the maze. Vincent first reacts with obvious relief that she is alive, which briefly softens Oraya’s anger, but he quickly turns stern and demands to know why she nearly threw away her match. His rebuke sends Oraya back to the memory of the child, and she finally confronts him about why human children were allowed to be used in the trial at all.

Oraya argues that humans in the House of Night should have protections, while Vincent insists that all lives in their world belong to Nyaxia and are cheap. Oraya cannot accept his answer, because unlike Kejari contestants, the humans in the maze had no choice. When Oraya says that the girl could easily have been her, Vincent sharply rejects the comparison and insists that Oraya is not like the other humans. The exchange exposes a painful divide between Oraya’s human sympathy and Vincent’s harsher worldview.

Vincent then shifts from father to strategist and tells Oraya that if she wants to change the world, she must first gain enough power to survive and rule it. He argues that real change requires sacrifice, focus, and ruthlessness, and that dreaming can only come after conquest. Taking this opening, Oraya tells him about the strange burst of magic she used before the trial, though she omits the details involving Raihn. Vincent is not shocked; he suggests that her blood offering to Nyaxia and the upheaval of the Kejari may have awakened abilities she had never accessed before, and he urges her to learn to use that power because nothing matters more than winning now.

Oraya returns to the Moon Palace just before dawn and finds Raihn again standing at the window, enduring the sunrise. Unlike before, their conversation is calm and practical. Raihn does not press her about where she has been and simply asks whether she is ready to begin working together the next day. Remembering Vincent’s insistence on conquest and focused by the coming Halfmoon trial, Oraya agrees. She also questions Raihn about his self-destructive habit of exposing himself to the sun, but he refuses to explain. As Oraya heads to bed, Mische openly listens in with amusement, underscoring the new, uneasy alliance forming inside the apartment.