Veya travels back toward Gore in brutal winter conditions, crossing the dangerous Path of Daes in Noeve’s cart instead of flying. Veya keeps Zekhi sheltered behind and chooses this secretive route because arriving openly in Gore could alert Cadok. The treacherous cliff path, the wind, and the isolation emphasize how risky even the journey is before Veya reaches her real objective.

As the cart pushes on, Veya and Noeve fall into familiar banter. Noeve teases Veya for being out of practice on the crossing and offers to hide Veya in the back with the birds if she fears being seen. Their conversation turns more serious when Veya remarks that Cadok’s rule has made the wall unbearable, especially because people are being fed to dragons as punishment.

Noeve confirms that she had been smuggling people out for the Queen but stopped after the Queen tried to delay an execution. According to Noeve, that act likely reached Cadok and created political danger, especially because the ruling involved a member of the Fíur du Ath. This exchange shows that Cadok’s brutality is affecting even private networks of resistance and that opposing him carries consequences.

When Noeve asks why Veya has returned, Veya admits she left something important in Gore more than a hundred phases ago. She reveals that she threw a piece of jewelry down Gore’s rubbish chute during the period connected to the blank space in her memory. Noeve warns that a velvet trogg lives at the bottom of the chutes, but Veya intends to confront it because the lost bangle may be necessary to find Elluin’s diary and uncover what happened to her. Even knowing the mission could kill her, Veya has already paid for a return trip and jokes that Noeve can keep the money if she dies.