An unnamed narrator sits alone in a curtained booth in The Fade, drinking bad mead and trying to dull the pain of a recent encounter that has left him feeling split open. Princess Kyzari arrives in secret after sending for him by parchment lark. The narrator immediately realizes Kyzari has slipped out of Arithia without permission, likely hidden in a carter rather than traveling openly with her Moonplume, and he warns that life as a fugitive in a broken kingdom will be harsher than she expects.

Their tense exchange softens briefly into dark humor, but the narrator quickly senses that Kyzari has sought him out for more than conversation. Before revealing why, Kyzari mentions that her tutor used to strike her knuckles with a riding whip for mistakes in her writing. The narrator reacts with controlled fury, exposing his protective anger toward her and his hatred of the cruelty she has been taught to endure in silence.

When the narrator presses her, Kyzari finally admits that she can hear someone through the diadem that bears the Aether Stone. He is horrified when he realizes how badly the secret has affected her: she looks exhausted, frail, and desperate. Kyzari explains that as an infant she screamed constantly until an iron necklace was placed on her, muting the voice. Years later, when she removed the necklace, she first heard only unbearable wailing and fear, so she put it back on for many phases before eventually finding the courage to listen again.

As Kyzari kept listening, the sounds became words, and she slowly learned the imprisoned speaker's language. She tells the narrator she does not want pity; she wants help freeing him. The narrator immediately rejects the idea, insisting that removing the diadem would kill her because it can only be taken from a dead host. Kyzari insists there must be another way and refuses to accept that her fate is fixed.

The conflict sharpens when Kyzari names the being in the stone as Caelis and confesses that she has fallen in love with him. The narrator, who knows how destructive love can become, is enraged and terrified by what that means. He argues that Caelis was sealed for a reason and that Kyzari's bloodline was given the burden of containing him for a reason, but Kyzari's guilty reaction suggests she knows more than she is saying.

When the narrator demands the truth, Kyzari shuts down, declares the meeting a mistake, and leaves before answering. Her exit leaves the booth open to the room beyond and forces the narrator back into his own emptiness, with both his mug and his chest feeling hollow. The chapter ends with the revelation that Kyzari's devotion to Caelis may threaten her life and the purpose of the line sworn to keep him bound.