After Agni settles the unconscious Elluin on a guest pallet, Agni privately tells Veya that her Dragonsight revealed far more than ordinary healing. Once Elluin's blood was cleaned away, Agni saw layers of many old runes on her body and, more disturbingly, a strange silver wound over Elluin's heart that looks like a healed killing stab. Because such a wound should not be survivable, Veya is shaken and orders Agni not to tell Kaan until they understand how Elluin died and why she is alive.

When Veya steps into the hall, she realizes Pyrok has overheard enough to know she is hiding something from the king. In the sitting room, Pyrok presses her for information and asks whether whatever she has learned will drag their still-growing forces into war. Veya refuses to share the secret, but her answers make clear that she is not afraid of war; she strips off part of her clothing to show the old lash scars on her back and explains that Tyroth and Cadok earned her hatred long ago.

To break the tension, Veya and Pyrok play Skripi for favors instead of gold. During the game, Veya reveals the real reason her thoughts are turning: Elluin once kept a diary hidden in the same suite, and Veya now thinks it may contain answers. Pyrok doubts the diary still exists and questions whether Veya can go to The Shade and deal with Tyroth without killing him and triggering a badly timed war, but Veya insists she can manage herself.

Veya outplays Pyrok and wins a future favor, then quietly decides she is likely going to The Shade to look for the diary. Although Pyrok asks whether he will stay to meet Elluin when she wakes, Veya avoids giving a direct answer. In private reflection, Veya admits that Elluin's past abandonment still wounds her so deeply that she does not trust herself to face Elluin without lashing out, and she hopes the diary might explain why Elluin left her behind and only left a note for the man she loved.