Edric reflects on the lies he has spread, including the long-standing falsehood that Ordinaries carry a disease that weakens Elite powers, which helped justify the Purging. On the eve of publicly announcing Queen Iris’s death, Edric spends the night in cold silence, his grief hardened. He awakens to adviser Oliver Rowe, Oliver’s daughter Myla Rowe, and young Prince Kitt visiting his chambers. Edric is emotionally distant from Kitt and quickly dismisses condolences, stating Iris died two years earlier in childbirth.

Oliver presents a plan to manage the gap between Iris’s actual death and the public announcement: Edric would claim to have observed a mourning period, then privately remarried Myla to secure the line, keeping the union secret because Myla was already pregnant. The plan hinges on passing off Myla’s existing infant as Edric’s “spare.” Edric questions the proposal and bluntly asks who fathered Myla’s child; Oliver deflects, and Myla offers no details.

Edric sets a condition that he will only accept the child if the boy is exceptionally powerful. Myla, protective and assured, insists no one in Ilya is like her son. To verify, Edric summons his Silencer, Damion, and orders him to assess the baby.

Myla reluctantly hands over her son, who remains calm and intent, revealing gray eyes like hers. Damion evaluates the infant and reports that the boy is extraordinarily powerful, unlike anything he has felt. Edric, hungry for power and impressed by the opportunity, decides that marrying Myla and claiming the child will consolidate both narrative control and strength.

Concluding the arrangement, Edric accepts Oliver’s proposal and declares the baby will be his. The decision sets the foundation for the kingdom’s official story: Iris died two years prior, Edric secretly remarried, and the powerful “spare” is his son, a deception that reconfigures the royal lineage and future politics.