Rune Winters races her grandmother’s exhausted horse, Lady, through the foggy capital, shaken by the discovery that Seraphine Oakes has been taken by the Blood Guard. Rune resolves to find out whether Seraphine is still alive and, if so, where the Guard is holding her before transferring prisoners to the palace prison.

As Rune rides, she relives the night of the uprising two years earlier, when the Blood Guard began purging witches and sealing the island. After Alexander Sharpe warned that soldiers were waiting at the cove where Nan planned to escape, Nan insisted Rune report her to spare Rune from execution as a “sympathizer.” Rune obeyed, led the Guard to Wintersea House, and watched as Nan was arrested and taken away, then collapsed in grief. Since then, Rune has used the resulting reputation—betraying her own grandmother—to appear fiercely loyal to the New Republic, a cover that protects her secret efforts to save witches.

Rune arrives at the opera house, hoping the intermission chatter of Tribunal members and witch hunters will reveal a new holding location. Carson Mercer, an elderly stable hand, needles Rune about her lateness, and Rune performs her spoiled, callous socialite persona to avoid suspicion. Inside, Rune passes Penitent children marked as descendants of witch sympathizers; she feels guilty but dares not help them openly.

In the grand foyer, Rune meets her best friend, Verity de Wilde, and their fashionable circle. Laila Creed, a Blood Guard member who dislikes Rune, publicly needles Rune with insinuations about the Crimson Moth, the vigilante who smuggles witches to safety. Rune counters by leaning into gossip and disgust at the Moth’s methods, while privately remembering a recent sewer rescue of twin witch sisters and Alexander Sharpe’s reliable role as her getaway partner.

Alexander Sharpe steps in to deflect suspicion, arguing Rune could not be the Moth because she turned Nan in. Noah Creed, the Good Commander’s son, adds that the Moth has not struck in weeks and mentions a witch captured tonight by Gideon Sharpe. The name confirms a dangerous lead; as Verity distracts the group with joking speculation about the Moth’s identity, Rune slips away with a new goal: find Gideon Sharpe and learn what happened to Seraphine.