Nesta attends a sunset service in the library’s red-stoned cavern and sits alone in the back among the priestesses. Merrill notices her with open hostility, while Clotho stands beside her on the dais. Nesta is surprised and pleased to discover that Gwyn is one of the seven priestesses leading the ceremony.

When the seventh bell rings, the service begins with layered choral music instead of instruments. Merrill offers prayers about the Mother, the Cauldron, mercy, and growth, but Nesta is increasingly absorbed by the songs, especially Gwyn’s voice. As the service continues and instruments seem to appear within the music, Nesta recognizes Gwyn’s singing as unusually powerful and feels personally summoned by it.

During a later song, Nesta closes her eyes and slips into a trance-like scrying. Guided by the music, she sees an ancient mountain surrounded by sea, passes through carved gates into a lethal darkness, and moves past sealed doors that contain horrors, including one especially terrible presence that seems aware of her. The vision leads her beneath the mountain into a black-rock chamber protected by wards, where a small golden harp sits waiting at the center.

Nesta realizes she has found the Harp, one of the Dread Trove objects. The Harp seems conscious and seductive, urging her to play it and promising power over doors, space, and time. Just as Nesta reaches toward it and nearly yields, the song ends and the vision shatters, dropping her back into the service shaken but certain that the Harp is hidden beneath the Prison.

Later, Cassian tells Rhys what Nesta discovered. Rhys confirms Nesta has never been to the Prison and reveals that, after learning of Beron’s treachery, he placed a shield around the Prison to stop anyone from freeing its inmates. Because removing that shield safely will take time, Rhys tells Cassian they can go the next day, then gives him Nesta’s Made sword and quietly suggests bringing it in case her magic is needed there.