Saeris, reeling from Queen Madra’s threat to burn an entire ward, watches Madra order Captain Harron to "make her sing" so her screams echo through the palace. Harron drags Saeris across the hall, dismissing her pleas about survival in the Third and speaking of death as a doorway. He throws Saeris down and drives his sword into her stomach, then twists it, forcing screams from her as she bleeds and chokes.

Harron escalates the torture, stabbing Saeris’s shoulder with a dagger and preparing to strike again. As the second dagger descends, it freezes in midair, held back by an unseen force. Saeris, barely conscious, discovers she can seize control of the weapon; the dagger turns white hot and liquefies into flowing silver that slips through Harron’s glove and begins moving with predatory purpose toward him. Horrified, Harron calls it “heresy” and “heretical magic,” pleading with Saeris to stop as the metal creeps up his body.

Believing she is already dying and driven by fury and fear for Hayden and her friends, Saeris refuses to call the silver back. She forces herself upright, staggering through blood loss, and looks for a way to finish Harron. Spotting an ancient sword embedded in a raised platform, she climbs toward it despite Harron’s frantic warning not to touch it or “turn the key” and “open the gate.”

At the platform, Saeris uses the old blade to cut her wrist bindings, then pulls it free from the stone, taking a surge of energy through her arms. She strikes Harron across the shoulder, but the act triggers a larger change: the floor becomes a widening, deepening pool of liquid silver that traps Saeris’s boots and rises rapidly. Harron, ensnared by the silver climbing his throat, shakes and thrashes as if fighting something invisible.

A towering, black-haired figure with iridescent green eyes rises out of the silver like Death made flesh, wielding a massive black-metal sword. He pauses when he sees the ancient sword in Saeris’s hand, then turns to Harron, demands to know where Madra is, and coldly tells Harron his fate is sealed. After a scuffle and a dull thud, Harron’s screams cut off. The stranger returns, calls Saeris “pathetic,” places a warm silver chain around her neck with a warning to return it, and carries her into the silver pool as she loses consciousness.