In Zilvaren City during the brutal heat of reckoning, a young thief reflects on the city’s iron rules: lying to a guardian means death, a truth she learned by witnessing her neighbor killed and her mother’s throat slit in the street. Now caught in the wealthy Hub, she is being strangled by a handsome guardian in golden armor who demands her name, age, and ward.

Needing to get back to the forge before dusk to keep a hard-won deal that will secure water for people she cares about, the thief complies selectively. She gives her real age and a false name—“Lissa Fossick”—but refuses to reveal her true identity as Saeris Fane. When she says she is from the Third Ward, the guardian recoils in fear because Third Ward residents are quarantined and presumed contagious; he is also a Believer, carrying a plague bag, and he turns violent.

As the guardian threatens prison and raises his sword, Saeris exploits his terror by performing helplessness and claiming her whole family has “the rattles.” The guardian hesitates, realizing that killing a possibly diseased Third Ward thief in the Hub would force him to dispose of the body immediately. To avoid contamination, he strips off the gauntlet and glove he used to grab her and drops them on the sand—an irresistible prize to Saeris.

Saeris lunges, snatches the heavier gold gauntlet, jams it onto her wrist, and sprints for the Hub wall as the guardian shouts for help. No one intervenes after hearing “Third.” Saeris notes that guardians are lethal fighters, but the guardian’s ceremonial armor makes him too heavy to run or climb, giving her the only advantage she needs.

Despite the gauntlet hampering her grip and nearly costing her the climb, Saeris refuses to drop it because it represents escape money, food, and her brother Hayden’s future. She reaches the top and is startled when quartz grains in the sand vibrate and the gauntlet “whispers,” repeating, “She sees us. She feels us.” Saeris slams her hand down to stop the reaction, ignores the guardian’s threats to hunt her, and disappears over the other side—already planning to melt the stolen gauntlet down for forging.