As Straun and the scarred guard escort Oak back toward the prisons, with the falcon Bran trailing behind, the scarred guard reveals himself as Valen, a former general who campaigned with Madoc and resents Oak for the Greenbriars' victory. Valen proposes diverting Oak to an interrogation room to extract information that might restore their standing with Wren after the embarrassing escape. He goads Straun into compliance by questioning his loyalty, and the bridle's command to obey Straun forces Oak, unable to resist, to be marched downward despite his protests.

When Bran finally notices the wrong direction and grows suspicious, Valen shoots him in the throat with a hand crossbow, then finishes him with two more bolts. Straun bars the door, and Oak, now manacled to a stone slab, can finally physically resist but is helpless. Valen dons a leather glove and produces an iron knife, intending to torture Oak about Jude's plans and the assault he assumes is coming. Oak adopts the persona of a vain, feckless prince, deflecting with quips even as iron sears his throat.

Valen sends Straun outside to stand guard. Alone with Oak, he asks the dangerous question of where Oak got the poison used on Straun—an answer that would expose the jeweled snake and Jude's involvement. Oak tries to bargain by offering intel on Hyacinthe, but Valen presses the iron blade closer.

Desperate, Oak finally invokes his long-suppressed gancanagh power, his "twisting tongue," to enchant Valen with whispers of greater ambition: command of Elfhame's armies, reward instead of ruin, if he frees Oak. Valen falls under the spell briefly, but recoils, recognizing the magic and reacting with terror and rage. He demands to know what Oak did to him. Unable to summon the charm a second time, Oak provokes Valen instead, and Valen beats him unconscious.