Kaan returns to Dhomm exhausted and immediately asks Pyrok whether Veya has come back. Pyrok says Veya is still away, and Kaan reveals he took Grihm to Gondragh and left him at the hatching hut to try to steal an egg from the Great Silver Sabersythe. Pyrok calls the mission suicidal, but Kaan has already forced himself to accept Grihm’s choice because taking or bonding a dragon is a personal act that could not be done by halves.

Inside his stripped, fire-scarred office, Kaan faces the pile of larks that built up during his absence and briefly reflects on how he destroyed the old room after killing his abusive father. While he starts working through overdue messages, he trades insults with Pyrok and asks after Roan, who is also still gone. The conversation then shifts when Pyrok asks whether Kaan is going to ask about Raeve.

Kaan tries to refuse, but Pyrok reports that Raeve is still in Dhomm and has been seen in the markets buying practical supplies such as leather, soap, poultice, and towels, plus an unknown item from The Curly Quill. To Kaan, those purchases suggest Raeve may be settling in rather than preparing to leave, and the possibility unsettles him. When Pyrok asks whether Kaan will attend the Great Flurrt festival, Kaan says he will only fulfill his duty of lifting the platforms, because the last Great Flurrt was the final night he spent with Elluin before seeing her dead body carried away by her grieving dragon.

Pyrok argues that this time could be different and adds one last important detail: Raeve asked a merchant whether anyone had seen the king. After Pyrok leaves, Kaan goes to his balcony, notices someone by the shore, and uses his seeing scope to confirm it is Raeve. He watches Raeve, barefoot and sun-warmed, collecting shells in a basket while wearing the same black sleep shift she wore when he took her to see Slátra. When Raeve turns her gaze toward Rygun’s hutch with visible longing, Kaan realizes she is thinking about him and his dragon, but the sight only sharpens his conflict between hope, fear, and the certainty that he would still give his heart to her again.