King Ostern returns on his Sabersythe with his two youngest sons, Cadok and Tyroth, for the Great Flurrt celebration. Raeve sees Tyroth for the first time since she entered the slumber in his father’s kingdom and remains deeply distrustful, so she carries a dragonscale blade Kaan taught her to forge. When Tyroth corners Raeve in a hallway and tries to force her into a dark corner, Raeve presses the blade to his throat. Tyroth only laughs and taunts Raeve, and Raeve answers with open hostility despite the expectation that she remain silent.

At the feast, Raeve is made to sit beside Tyroth, veiled and unable to speak like a proper princess. The food placed before Raeve is too rich or too spicy, but Raeve cannot ask for anything else, which deepens her humiliation. Kaan keeps watching Tyroth, showing his concern without intervening. Veya also seems unnaturally quiet until King Ostern begins publicly listing her failures and finally says he regrets the slumber he placed in her mother’s womb, reducing Veya to tears.

That cruelty pushes Raeve past restraint. Raeve tears off her veil, climbs onto the table, takes the food she actually wants, and then returns to her seat while eating openly and smiling at King Ostern in mock politeness. Raeve also takes vegetables from Tyroth’s plate and pointedly remarks that Tyroth is currently ruling Raeve’s kingdom, making the insult deliberate. Both King Ostern and Tyroth glare at Raeve, and Raeve is so angry that she almost wants Tyroth to strike her so she can retaliate.

While Raeve is still openly defiant, King Ostern announces that Kaan and Veya will leave with Cadok and Tyroth after the Great Flurrt to help rebuild a village destroyed by a rabid Sabersythe. The announcement shocks everyone except King Ostern, making clear that he is reasserting control and separating Raeve from two of her closest supports. Later, Kaan comes to Raeve in their home, and the two spend the Great Flurrt in a slow, tender intimacy that lets them briefly pretend the future is not approaching.

Even so, the chapter ends under the weight of what cannot be avoided. In thirty cycles, Raeve will turn twenty-one, and preparations have already begun for Raeve’s binding ceremony with Tyroth in Arithia and for Raeve’s coronation. Raeve and Kaan try to hold onto the present, but the coming separation and forced political future now feel immediate.