Tamlin ignites a hundred candles with a gesture and leaves Feyre in an opulent study. Hoping to write her family that she is safe and to warn them about the blight, Feyre faces her poor reading skills and begins teaching herself from a children’s book, compiling a list of unfamiliar words.

Wandering the stacks, Feyre discovers a vast mural charting Prythian’s creation from a cauldron, the human–faerie war, the wall, and the seven courts, with a stark central mountain. She resolves never to venture north and returns to her desk, frustrated and ashamed, and crumples her word list.

Tamlin arrives with books and offers to help her write, saying he owes her for tending his wounded hand. Feyre, mistrustful of faeries and stung by pride, refuses and challenges him about who he really is. Their exchange sours; she leaves. Later, she finds her discarded list gone and reconsiders her pride, deciding she needs information about the blight and any Treaty loophole.

Feyre tracks down Lucien in his room. He mentions returning from the northern border and that Tamlin has gone to handle a disturbance in the western forest. Feyre steers the conversation to the Suriel, and Lucien, catching on, details how to trap one: a grove of young birches in the western woods, freshly slaughtered chickens as bait, a double-loop snare, armed with bow and knife, and to flee for running water once it’s freed.

Warning that Tamlin would punish anyone who helped, Lucien nonetheless lends Feyre a knife and hints he’ll be within hearing range. Feyre takes the blade, preparing to hunt a Suriel for answers about the blight and her possible way home.