In the forbidden section of San Michon’s Great Library, Gabriel de León challenged Astrid Rennier’s claim of royalty, only for Astrid to reveal she is the illegitimate daughter of Emperor Alexandre and Antoinette Rennier. She spoke bitterly of Empress Isabella, who had separated Astrid from her mother and consigned both to religious houses to remove them from court. Astrid’s resentment surfaced in her sharp tongue, while Gabriel noted the truth in her poise and anger.

Astrid explained that she and her mother were sent away once Alexandre married, with Antoinette to Redwatch and Astrid to San Michon, and that she has not seen her mother for a year. Gabriel realized Astrid had named her gelding Justice out of a sense of wrongs done to her; he told her the horse kept the name. Their banter revealed Astrid’s disdain for holy pretenses and Gabriel’s awkward admiration.

Pressed on why he had come, Gabriel asked Astrid about “sanguimancy,” admitting he suspects he inherited a feared, ancient bloodline rather than being a mere frailblood. He confided that Seraph Talon and Greyhand had discussed killing him, and that he seeks knowledge to master this gift. He revealed his driving motive: his sister Amélie’s murder and turning by a vampire, vowing greatness if it would help save others.

Astrid, moved by his purpose and intrigued by him, offered to help search the archives if he asked nicely. After some playfully barbed negotiation, Gabriel knelt, kissed her hand, and asked “Please, Majesty,” acknowledging her claim as a “fucking queen.” They agreed to work together despite mutual wariness, with Astrid teasingly asserting she was “twice as crafty as the devil.”

Gabriel, narrating to Jean-François in the present, recalled how he and Astrid read for hours in silence. He observed Astrid’s swift reading in many languages, refined posture, foul mouth, and nervous habit of biting her nails. Most texts seemed the ravings of zealots, but they accepted the search might take months and parted near dawn.

Before leaving, they arranged future meetings around midnight, with Astrid advising a roof entry to Barracks. Gabriel slipped out, endured the freezing wind, and approached Keeper Logan by the sky platform, feigning arrival from Barracks. Logan lowered him to the valley, offered rough congratulations on surviving his first Hunt, and made crude jokes about Gabriel’s heritage while affirming he was doing God’s work.

Reaching the stables, Gabriel found a shovel, barrow, and a note from Kaveh and Kaspar confirming his punishment shift. After greeting and feeding Justice a sugar cube, Gabriel began shoveling manure, accepting the consequence of his nocturnal rule-breaking.