At the gallery, Bryce talks with Hunt during lunch about the city preparing for new Governor Celestina's arrival. Their teasing conversation briefly lightens Hunt's mood, but it ends abruptly when the star-shaped scar on Bryce's chest begins glowing again. Bryce looks up to find Cormac in her doorway and quickly hangs up on Hunt.

Cormac tells Bryce that her star glows because their union is predestined, citing an Avallen oracle who said he would unite with a princess bearing a star in her heart. Bryce mocks the prophecy and presses him for his real purpose. Cormac says he came to understand his betrothed's life, but his comments about Avallen make clear that women there do not have jobs and that he expects Bryce to adjust to those traditions.

The conversation turns hostile as Bryce offers to pay Cormac to abandon the engagement, and Cormac calmly frames the marriage as a political duty that will strengthen their people and bloodlines. He suggests that after producing heirs, both of them could take other lovers, treating the arrangement as practical rather than personal. Bryce rejects the idea completely, says the Fae are not her people, and insists that Randall Silago is her real father, not the Autumn King. When Cormac tells Bryce to act like the immortal Starborn female she is, Bryce ends the exchange by slamming the door in his face.

Elsewhere, Hunt joins Naomi and Isaiah for their first private meeting with Governor Celestina in Micah's old office. Celestina's warmth, politeness, and openness immediately unsettle Hunt because they contrast so sharply with the cruelty he expects from Archangels. Celestina says she wants partners rather than subordinates, invites honesty from them, confirms Isaiah as leader of the 33rd, and tells Hunt she is comfortable with Hunt continuing to live with Bryce.

Celestina goes further by telling Isaiah and Naomi they may live in their own homes if they wish, and by openly condemning slavery. She says that although the Asteri still consider Isaiah a slave, she views him as free and will try to continue efforts to win his official freedom. Hunt remains deeply suspicious of her kindness, but the meeting still seems to promise a better future until Celestina mentions that the rest of the triarii were delayed on their journey.

When Hunt asks what she means, Celestina explains that because Micah's triarii were nearly wiped out and another Archangel took part of Sandriel's group, Sandriel's surviving triarii have been reassigned to her in Lunathion. Hunt is horrified because he knows exactly how brutal they are. The chapter ends with the office door opening and Pollux Antonius and Baxian Argos entering, confirming Hunt's fear that two of Sandriel's most dangerous enforcers are now in the city.