Bryce, Nesta, and Azriel land in a sealed chamber beneath the Prison after the ceiling collapses, finding a crystal sarcophagus containing a pale, dark-haired woman who is not dead but sleeping. With no doors and only the collapsed ceiling as an exit, the three realize they have uncovered something deliberately hidden. The woman awakens, calls Bryce “slave,” and demands release, ordering Azriel to kill Bryce and demanding a “Tithe” to regain strength.

As the being probes them, she recognizes the Horn’s connection to Bryce and senses Nesta’s link to the Dread Trove, claiming a “blacksmith” would know her own work. Bryce and Nesta understand the implication: the woman in the coffin is an Asteri. The Asteri’s rage spikes at their defiance, and she tries to command Azriel as a “foot soldier,” insisting she is their god and master.

Elsewhere, Tharion, Ithan, Flynn, and Declan leave the Meat Market in stunned silence after Ithan accidentally kills Sigrid by punching through her throat during the Viper Queen’s staged “test.” Ithan is shaken and blood-splattered, and the group is ushered to a waiting sedan under the Viper Queen’s assassins’ watch. As they flee, the sprites Rithi, Sasa, and Malana zip into the car and urge them to go immediately.

The sprites reveal they have burned the Meat Market, sending flames into the sky as a diversion. Rithi tells Ithan the Viper Queen engineered the situation and used him, and Ithan quietly admits he fell into her trap. The car speeds through the city toward the Rose Gate and the Eastern Road, heading for the coast and a waiting ship, knowing consequences will follow.

Back in the hidden chamber, Azriel advances with Truth-Teller glowing and the Starsword ready, and the Asteri reacts to the weapons by invoking names from the ancient past—Fionn and Enalius—shocking Azriel. The Asteri recounts how Theia tricked her into sleeping in the crystal “above the well” and sealed her to starve for eons. Bryce, desperate for answers and pressed by the urgency of Hunt’s suffering, offers a bargain: she will ask questions but threatens to leave the Asteri entombed forever; the Asteri will only answer if freed. Despite Azriel’s warning, Bryce uses the Prison’s responding wards to unlock the sarcophagus with a thunderous click, releasing the lid.