Saeris Fane wakes from a feeder nightmare in Kingfisher’s bedroom, sore but told her wounds were healed. Kingfisher insists she is still recovering from poison, needles her about being human, and admits he destroyed the slashed paintings when his pendant can’t hold back “darkness.” When Saeris tries to leave, she discovers Kingfisher has issued a blood-oath command that physically prevents her from getting out of his bed except to use the bathroom.

For five days Saeris is forced to remain in the bed, tended by fire sprites and checked daily by Te Léna, who “reads” Saeris’s blood and says the oath won’t release Saeris until the poison is truly gone. Onyx, Kingfisher’s fox, keeps Saeris company. Carrion Swift visits and crudely jokes about “revenge” in Kingfisher’s bed; he also reveals Kingfisher previously forced him to bathe in exchange for boots, using sprites and a humiliatingly thorough cleaning.

Once freed, Saeris returns to the forge and resumes alchemical trials, but each medallion attempt fails and the quicksilver seems to mock her. After eight days and twenty-four failures, her silver supply dwindles with each refinement, raising the stakes of ever seeing Hayden and Elroy again. Onyx alerts her to a presence in the garden; Saeris fears a feeder, but it is Renfis, splattered with foul feeder blood from the war front, delivering Kingfisher’s request for dinner.

Saeris pressures Ren to attend dinner as a buffer, and Ren reluctantly agrees. Before he leaves, Saeris asks about Kingfisher’s sword, Nimerelle; Ren explains that when other god swords went silent, Nimerelle stayed with Kingfisher “at a cost,” blackening over centuries but never leaving him.

At dinner, Saeris deliberately sits beside Kingfisher, provoking tension with Carrion and Ren present. Saeris confronts Kingfisher about the pointless relic trials and his earlier coercion; Kingfisher unapologetically defends using the oath, then forces Saeris to eat by bargaining for answers and taunting her desire with explicit, whispered threats that humiliate her in front of Ren. The meal ends with a major shift: Kingfisher announces they are returning to the war camp in the morning—and Saeris is going with them.