Kaan races home on Rygun with an unconscious, badly wounded Raeve in his arms, pushing the dragon toward the Burn’s capital as fast as possible. The sight of the Loff and the city gives Kaan brief relief, but that vanishes when Veya meets him at the Stronghold and demands to know who he is carrying. When Veya pulls back Raeve’s hood and sees her face, she is shocked and shaken, and Kaan tells her only that Raeve needs Agni immediately.

Kaan and Veya rush through the Stronghold to the feasting hall, where Pyrok clears the room and Agni begins examining Raeve on a table. Agni finds that Raeve’s skull is fissured and says she must repair the bone before stitching the flesh, making clear that Raeve barely survived. As Agni prepares to work, Kaan explains that much of the blood on Raeve is not hers.

When Veya realizes Raeve was taken to a Tookah Trial and hears Hock was involved, she attacks Kaan in fury until Grihm restrains her. Kaan says the gorge carried Raeve there and that he arrived in time, but admits Hock was the male involved and that Raeve did not kill him. Pyrok then notices Raeve looks like Elluin Neván, long believed dead, and Kaan confirms that Raeve is Elluin, though she knows herself only as Raeve and remembers nothing before the last twenty-three phases.

The discussion turns from Raeve’s injuries to the danger surrounding her identity. Kaan says a Truthtune confirmed Raeve had no memory of him, and Veya notes that Raeve bears the mark of a null, carries Neván blood, and wears no song-silencing Aether Stone, meaning Tyroth could attack if he learns she is in the Burn. Kaan, despite his fear that Raeve may remember another life and leave him again, insists he will not use her as a political tool: he will gently tell Raeve the truth and let her choose her own path. As Agni starts the brutal work of mending Raeve’s skull, Kaan leaves, and Veya warns him that Raeve’s buried suffering could destroy her if he is careless.