Ead journeys south through the Burlah desert with a caravan of forty travelers. Along the way, she reflects on her stop at the Buried City near the Dreadmount, where she searched for the route Jannart utt Zeedeur had used to explore underground ruins connected to the Long-Haired Star, but found the tunnel blocked by a rockfall. The desert has erased her courtly identity; she feels like just another dusty traveler. She rides alongside Ragab, a scarred postrider, who tells her the legend of the Melancholy King—the origin story of the Desert of the Unquiet Dream—a tale of a grief-stricken king who followed a mirage of his dead queen into the desert and perished.

When a sandstorm forces the caravan to shelter at a Nuram camp, Ead chafes at the delay but accepts she cannot cross the Burlah alone. That night, she dreams of Sabran before falling into deeper sleep. She is awakened by a sound outside and discovers Parspa, the last known hawiz—a giant bird sent by Chassar. Ead mounts Parspa and flies south over Lasia, her homeland, passing ruins of Yikala before descending into the Lasian Basin forest that conceals the Priory. She is met at the forest's edge by Nairuj, a pregnant sister of the Priory.

Ead sleeps for three days. When she wakes, Chassar is at her bedside. She tries to tell him about Sabran's danger and the Dukes Spiritual, but he says those matters no longer concern them and that the Prioress will speak with her. After bathing and dressing in postulant garments, Ead beholds the great orange tree from the sunrooms and is reunited with Aralaq, the ichneumon she helped raise as a child, now grown massive. Aralaq warns her to tread lightly around the Prioress.

At dinner, the Prioress Mita Yedanya listens to Ead's full account of events in Inys—Truyde's prophecy about cosmic balance, the failed marriage and lost heir, the Cupbearer's assassination attempts, and the Dukes Spiritual threatening Sabran's throne. Chassar finds the cosmic balance theory intriguing, noting the Priory's own records of periods of scarcity. However, the Prioress firmly declares the Priory will no longer interfere in Inysh affairs, arguing that their purpose is to fight the Draconic Army and that resources must be conserved for the coming war against the High Westerns—Fýredel, Valeysa, Orsul, and the White Wyrm. Ead argues passionately that Virtudom's military strength is needed and that abandoning Sabran will cause catastrophic instability, but the Prioress overrules her.

As a concession, the Prioress announces that Ead has earned the rank of Red Damsel. Ead accepts but recognizes the honor is partly meant to mollify her. She then learns that Jondu, her beloved mentor and friend, is dead—she died pursuing the sword Ascalon but found a mysterious box instead. The box bears a Selinyi riddle referencing "a golden knife" needed to open it. The Sons of Siyāti are searching the archives for answers. Devastated but disciplined, Ead suppresses her grief.

That night, Ead descends alone into the Vale of Blood to eat from the orange tree. Kneeling naked beneath its branches, she prays for the sacred flame. A golden fruit drops into her hands, and as she eats it, the fire of the tree surges through her body, restoring her depleted power in a transcendent experience of dying and rebirth.