After Cormac sends the group into the Crystal Palace, Bryce finds herself alone in a white-quartz stairwell behind the same numbered door Sofie Renast once entered. Bryce steadies herself and descends into a silent corridor with no guards, no doors, and only seven crystal pipes rising from the floor, each marked with the name of an Asteri.

Bryce reads the plaques one by one: Hesperus, Polaris, Eosphoros, Octartis, Austrus, Sirius, and Rigelus. The layout confirms that this hidden place is tied directly to the Asteri themselves, and Sirius's plaque especially reminds Bryce of the dead Asteri the Prince of the Pit devoured. Bryce still does not understand why Sofie and Danika considered this room so important.

Then the crystal floor suddenly flares with firstlight. The energy shoots into six of the seven pipes, and black screens beside them activate with power readings. Sirius's pipe stays dark, but the others display percentages, including Rigelus at sixty-five percent and Austrus at seventy-six percent, revealing that the Asteri are being actively fueled.

From this, Bryce realizes the truth: the Asteri do not merely rule Midgard's power systems, they feed on them. The palace's quartz functions as a conduit, much like Crescent City's Gates, channeling firstlight upward to the Asteri and likely into their crystal thrones above. Bryce understands that the Drops of the living and the secondlight taken from the dead are harvested to sustain the Asteri, turning the people of Midgard into a permanent food source. The revelation shows Bryce a possible path to defeating them: if their supply of firstlight and secondlight is cut off, the Asteri can be weakened and destroyed.