From the shadows of his underground prison, the Scavenger King watches a young fae woman huddled in her cell. He notes her striking resemblance to his "Fire Lark," but also the differences: this prisoner weeps, rambles to unseen company, and carries the refinement of someone raised with privilege. When he steps into view, the narrative reveals that he is Arkyn and that the prisoner is Princess Kyzari, his niece, though she does not know their connection.

Arkyn offers Kyzari what he calls release by passing her a blank parchment and a runed quill through the bone bars. Desperate, Kyzari signs her name at once. As Arkyn studies her, he resents the protected life she has lived and imagines how poorly she might survive the harsh conditions that nearly killed him, yet he also tests whether she possesses any hidden strength.

After leaving her cell, Arkyn returns to his lavish personal suite, a room filled with treasures he has scavenged over the years. He reflects that Kyzari's capture felt like a gift from the Creators because she immediately demanded that a lark be sent to the Burn King rather than to her supposed father, the Shade. That suits Arkyn, because he has no interest in the Shade's power; the throne he wants is the bronze throne of the Burn.

When Arkyn examines the signed parchment more closely, he finds that Kyzari has concealed a tiny sentence within her signature. The hidden message makes him laugh and changes his judgment of her, convincing him that she has more spirit and survival instinct than he first believed. In response, he adds his own note, folds the parchment into a lark, activates it, and sends it toward Kaan Vaegor.

Arkyn's thoughts make clear that he blames Kaan for taking vengeance that Arkyn considered his own, and he intends to make Kaan suffer. As Arkyn's lark flies outward, another damaged lark slips into Kyzari's cell. Curled under her blanket, Kyzari wakes and receives it in her hand, where three carefully written letters on its underside hint that someone has reached back to her.