Gabriel narrates the origins and character of Redwatch, the river city built of red clay and famed as the birthplace of San Cleyland. He and Dior reach the city after two nights, with Gabriel nearly overcome by thirst and the scent of blood everywhere. As they disembark, Gabriel notices a formerly dying passenger now healed, and realizes Dior secretly used her blood to mend the man’s infected leg despite earlier caution.

Gabriel chastised Dior for risking exposure, but Dior insisted she had been discreet and pressed to find the Night Market. They pushed through Redwatch’s crowded, desperate streets filled with refugees, soldiers in sunflower-yellow livery, and hawkers of false charms. Gabriel led Dior to a hidden alley and the shop called The Price, run by the blind witch Madame Souris, who recognized Gabriel as the Black Lion and admitted them.

Inside the chaotic, occult-packed shop, Souris teased Gabriel about his fall from grace and inquired into his business. Gabriel asked for blood—specifically paleblood suitable for his needs—and Souris produced phials taken from foulbloods, along with the tools he requested. When payment arose, Souris rejected Gabriel’s blood and demanded Dior’s instead, revealing she sensed something unprecedented and powerful in Dior.

Gabriel refused to trade Dior’s blood. Souris withdrew the goods, saying they would be waiting when he changed his mind, and addressed him as Chevalier. Once outside, Dior argued that he needed the blood to survive, but Gabriel warned her that the hidden world of true witchery—duskdancers, faekin, and worse—would do anything to claim someone with her healing gift. He insisted they find another way.

They rented a room at a dockside dosshouse called Mandy’s Kiss, where Gabriel collapsed, wracked by thirst and pain. They argued again; he sent Dior to find drink to help him cope. Left alone, Gabriel weighed and rejected options: he could not force Souris, could ill afford service to her, and had grim business to the east ahead of him. He heard scratching at the window and feared a reminder of old debts, but it was only the wind.

Dior returned and threw him a bottle of harsh liquor, then left in anger to find cleaner air and friendlier company downstairs. Gabriel drank it all, knowing it was a poor substitute for blood but enough to drown his pain for a while. As he slipped toward blackness, fear of what he might do when he broke rose within him, and he heard Astrid’s voice in his mind: “Remember why you left us.”