At nightfall, Oraya is summoned through the Moon Palace by a thread of shadow that leads all surviving contestants to a great room. Exhausted and furious after Ilana’s death, Oraya studies the other competitors and counts roughly fifty survivors from the Houses of Night, Blood, and Shadow. On the balcony above them stand the Ministaer, his acolytes, and Vincent with the House of Night leadership. Oraya reflects on the Ministaer’s unsettling interest in her and realizes more clearly that Vincent also had a political reason for wanting her to enter the Kejari: if Oraya wins, no dangerous rival will.

The Ministaer formally welcomes the contestants and explains the structure of the Kejari. The tournament begins at sundown the next day, lasts four months, and consists of five trials tied to Nyaxia’s mythology. Contestants must live in the Moon Palace, may leave only between sundown and sunrise, and must return by dawn. When the Ministaer addresses violence inside the palace, he gives only a cryptic ruling: contestants may defend themselves, but Nyaxia “appreciates the gift of blood within her trials,” leaving everyone uncertain whether killing outside the trials is forbidden or merely discouraged.

After the speech, the contestants are led to a lavish feast. Oraya takes food and watches from the edge of the room while some vampires feed and others hoard supplies. One dark-haired contestant grows frantic while searching for someone, then rushes out and returns roaring that his brother has been killed. Oraya recognizes him as Klyn, the brother of the Rishan vampire she killed while protecting Ilana’s body. When Klyn rages at the room, Ibrihim tries to calm him, but Klyn rejects him and demands vengeance.

A voice from across the room mocks Klyn, and the speaker is revealed as Raihn Ashraj. Oraya recognizes Raihn as the same man she stabbed in the thigh earlier, and Raihn’s bandage confirms it. Klyn accuses Raihn of murdering his brother, but Raihn denies it and pointedly looks at Oraya, making clear that he knows or suspects the truth. Meanwhile, a curly-haired woman from Vincent’s party appears beside Oraya, comments dryly on the fight, and quietly guesses that Oraya killed Klyn’s brother.

Klyn attacks anyway. Raihn stops Klyn’s sword, warns him not to reach for it again, then violently smashes Klyn into the wall and breaks his arm. Klyn, suddenly terrified, insists that killing is forbidden before the trials. Raihn answers by using Asteris to kill Klyn outright in front of everyone, then waits to see whether Nyaxia punishes him. When nothing happens, Raihn calmly returns to his meal. His action settles the Ministaer’s ambiguity: contestants can indeed die in the Moon Palace before the first trial even begins.