The next morning, Egith gathers the Rawbonds at the Strategos training field and announces they have entered a new phase of training focused on accessing pack-specific powers. For the Strategos, this means sharing enhanced strategic abilities—prescient understanding of troop movements, spotting weaknesses in enemy formations, and calculating odds with supernatural precision. However, Egith stresses that this requires complete synchronization between wolf and rider, pointedly looking at Meryn. While other Rawbonds close their eyes and begin receiving visions of battlefields from their wolves, Meryn finds Anassa's mental wall back up and impenetrable. She is forced to fake meditating to avoid drawing attention to her failure.

Egith then announces the upcoming Purge Trial, which marks the end of the Forging period—after which surviving Rawbonds will move into the Proving period. Meryn questions the logic of culling their own ranks when warriors are needed against the Siphons. Egith reveals, to Meryn's shock, that the Trials were created by and for the direwolves, not by the king. The wolves demand that weak links be eliminated to protect the pack in war. Meryn realizes she has painted a target on her back by questioning the process aloud, and senses through the bond that Anassa agrees with the culling philosophy.

After class, Meryn climbs to the upper terrace to confront Anassa about shutting her out. Anassa accuses Meryn of hypocrisy—blocking the bond during intimate moments with Killian while demanding full access to the wolf's power. Meryn argues she deserves privacy and accuses Anassa of never truly helping her. When Meryn suggests Anassa is upset because Killian isn't Bonded and can't help find her mate, Anassa laughs derisively and reveals she has known her mate for years. Stunned, Meryn demands to know who it is, but Anassa refuses, saying she will reveal the mate's identity only when Meryn proves herself worthy.

Meryn swallows her anger and proposes a compromise: she will try to let Anassa sense her emotions during intimate moments but needs some privacy in return. She pleads for assurance they will be okay for the Purge Trial. After a long silence, Anassa agrees with a terse "We'll be okay."

That night, Meryn has a terrifying nightmare in which she wanders the castle's shifting corridors following her mother's voice. She finds her mother in the arena, wearing a bloody crown, with eyes of pure black. Black blood pours from her mother's mouth and eyes as a disembodied voice thunders: "Nocturn is calling. Are you listening?" Meryn jolts awake only to discover she is not in her bed—she is lying face-down in the dirt of the real arena, at the exact convergence point of the blood-draining gutters, the same spot where her mother stood in the nightmare.