Edric recalls that Kitt once mentioned a striking Slummer with silver hair and burning blue eyes who had saved an Enforcer, but Kitt did not connect her to Queen Iris. Edric, who had memorized Iris’s eyes, recognizes their match when the Trials contestants assemble and Paedyn Gray sits at his table. He forces composure, hiding the surge of hatred and the memory of the infant he considered an embarrassment, and resolves to watch Paedyn die in the Trials.

During the audience, Edric masks his contempt and questions Paedyn as a supposed Psychic, noting her careful, plausible lies and Kai’s lack of suspicion. He fixates on her blue eyes and her status as an Ordinary passing as an Elite. When Paedyn mentions the man who raised her, Adam Gray, Edric maintains a neutral facade while inwardly relishing blame; he remarks that he knew Adam, recalling how Calum learned of Adam’s Resistance plans and how Adam was later killed after discovering a kings-only secret.

Edric reflects that he believed the Gray name died with Adam and that he had not known his daughter was raised by the Resistance leader. He stands, reaffirming his vow to see Paedyn die as Iris did, and to wound her as she has wounded him by existing as a powerless reminder of loss.

In a private conversation that follows, Calum reads Edric’s fury and confesses he spared the infant, saying he could not kill her. Edric condemns the result: an Ordinary in his castle competing in the Trials. Calum apologizes and explains he has watched Paedyn for years through his work with Adam and the Resistance, insisting she was never meant to reach the castle, and noting she saved Kitt.

When Edric demands Paedyn’s death, Calum proposes exploiting her first. He reveals the Resistance is prepared to move and suggests using Paedyn to gain entry to the Bowl after the third Trial, assembling a sea of Ordinaries in one place. Edric recognizes the plan hinges on the tunnels and that Paedyn only needs someone to show them to her—someone both men understand to be Calum. Pleased, Edric embraces the scheme: use Paedyn to bait the Resistance, then let the Trials or his designs finish her.