On the first morning of her new routine, Nesta sits down to a breakfast she does not want and immediately challenges Cassian’s control over her life. Cassian insists that she eat real food before training because he wants her strong enough to endure the lesson, but Nesta treats every instruction as a humiliation. When Cassian bluntly says that starving herself will not bring her father back, Nesta explodes, because his comment touches the grief and trauma she refuses to discuss. She finally forces herself to finish the porridge and eggs only to win the standoff on her own terms.

As they prepare to leave, the argument turns flirtatious and cutting. Cassian grips Nesta’s arm when she passes him, and the contact revives memories of their near-kiss during the war and of the feelings neither of them has resolved. Nesta lashes out by saying she would never let him into her bed, and Cassian answers that she will end up in his instead, escalating the tension between them. After Nesta goes upstairs, the point of view shifts to Cassian, who admits he is powerfully affected by seeing her in Illyrian leathers and remembers how deeply her rejection at Winter Solstice wounded him, making him determined not to expose himself emotionally again.

Mor arrives to help transport them beyond the House of Wind’s wards, then winnows them to Windhaven. Cassian reflects that Nesta understands exactly how to wage emotional warfare and wonders whether training her might turn her into a weapon, especially given what she did to the King of Hybern and what the Bone Carver implied about the power she took from the Cauldron. At Windhaven, the cold and the hostile stares of the Illyrians make clear that Nesta is unwelcome. Devlon confronts them, and when Cassian announces that Nesta will train there, Devlon responds with contempt and superstitious misogyny, insisting that any weapons she touches should be buried and questioning whether she is bleeding.

Cassian firmly rejects Devlon’s claims, but he does not escalate the confrontation into an outright fight. He leads Nesta to an empty ring and expects her to begin, only for her to sit on a rock and calmly refuse. Nesta knows that simply showing up satisfies the minimum requirement imposed on her, and she uses that loophole to embarrass Cassian in front of the watching warriors. Cassian orders her to get up, and for a moment Nesta senses both his anger and his plea not to humiliate him before Devlon. Even so, she holds her ground, choosing defiance over cooperation, and Cassian finally turns away, draws his sword, and begins his exercises alone while Nesta decides it is better if he hates her.