Raeve is escorted through a hidden settlement built inside the hollow remains of an enormous dead dragon. She notes its camouflage, its mixed population, and its reverence for dragons, while the silver Fate Herder stays close behind her. When the warriors announce her arrival, the entire community reacts with shock and devotion, dropping to their knees and repeating the phrase "Kholu haf comá," which makes Raeve fear she is either being worshipped or marked for danger.

She is led deeper into the dragon’s remains and brought into a skull chamber where a crowned male and a pale female with a nursing baby sit on bloodstone thrones. The rulers and the gathered crowd repeatedly honor the Fate Herder, and a blind seer-like woman with white eyes steps forward and declares Raeve to be Kholu, triggering celebration throughout the chamber. Raeve cannot understand most of the language, but she realizes the people believe her arrival fulfills something long awaited.

The ritual intensifies when two warriors are summoned and a six-legged colk is brought in. The blind woman cuts the animal’s throat and its blood is collected while the warriors are painted, making Raeve recoil in disgust and anger. She tries to leave immediately, but the Fate Herder blocks her path and forces her back, proving that she is not free to refuse whatever ceremony or judgment has begun.

A ring of women then surrounds Raeve, and Saiza, one of them, speaks enough of Raeve’s language to explain. Saiza says Raeve is Kholu, the prophesied figure who came by the River Ahgt and was delivered by the Fate Herder, and that her offspring are foretold to tether the moons to the sky forever. Raeve rejects the prophecy outright, insists she will never bear children, and senses that even the Fate Herder may not be interested in her for that reason.

Saiza further explains that the blind prophet, the Sól, made this foretelling many cycles ago, and that the community’s king and queen have approved the Tookah Trial. With little choice, Raeve submits to being washed, stripped of her stolen clothes, painted with blood, and dressed in ceremonial red silk and copper ornaments. As the gong sounds and the crowd parts, the Fate Herder nudges her onward, and Raeve focuses on enduring the coming trial while still clinging to her larger goal of eventual freedom and revenge.