Bryce and Nesta trek for hours through the underground tunnel in strained silence. They pause once to eat and drink from provisions Nesta brought, and Bryce privately decides not to raise doubts about whether the passage leads anywhere, fearing Nesta might try to force her back to wait for rescue.

They reach a fork: the left branch is plain rock, while the right is framed by an archway carved with stars, planets, and a sun. Bryce’s star brightens toward the right-hand tunnel, and she notices wall carvings that read as a warning. When Nesta moves to enter, Bryce grabs her to stop her; Nesta instantly pins Bryce with an unnaturally cold sword at Bryce’s throat until Bryce points out the danger.

Bryce translates the first figure as an introduction by a noble Fae woman named Silene and explains the “story” on the walls: scenes of slaughter and torture that likely conceal traps. Bryce proposes triggering the mechanism safely, but Nesta instead lays a hand on the stone and unleashes silver flame, which causes the traps to click and misfire; rusty bolts shoot out weakly and then melt into dust as Nesta’s power neutralizes them. Nesta offers curt thanks and continues onward.

Later, they rest in an alcove and eat again while Bryce studies more carvings showing Fae kneeling before towering, robed beings and offering glimmers of starlight—magic—while chained humans lie behind them, crudely depicted. The images echo Bryce’s memory of Rigelus’s claim that humans were used as a subjugated class to keep others from recognizing their own enslavement.

Nesta questions why Bryce’s star glows so strongly here, and Bryce admits she is following it to learn what it is leading her toward—and why she ended up in this world. Bryce learns the tunnel is unknown even to Rhysand, and Nesta clarifies there are no kings here: only seven courts ruled by High Lords (and sometimes High Ladies). As distant scuffs sound in the darkness, Nesta probes why Bryce didn’t let her trigger the trap and escape, but Bryce insists she doesn’t want Nesta dead and distrusts captivity. Nesta ultimately attributes the noises to “just the shadows.”