Loth awakens naked in an underground chamber, suffering the bloodblaze—a devastating plague that makes his blood feel like boiling oil. In his agony, he answers questions from a mysterious voice about his identity and how he obtained an iron box. Someone tends to him and gives him drink, and when he next wakes, the plague has passed. His bruises have been treated, and he finds himself in a windowless, subterranean complex carved from rosy stone.

A woman in a green cloak guides Loth through the passages to a chamber where Ambassador Chassar uq-Ispad waits. Chassar reveals that Loth is inside the Priory of the Orange Tree in Lasia, having been rescued from the mountains by an ichneumon named Aralaq and brought here by one of the Priory's sisters. Loth is bewildered, having last remembered being in Rauca before blacking out.

Chassar tells Loth an alternate history of the founding myth of Inys. In this version, Cleolind refused Sir Galian Berethnet's demands for her hand and the conversion of her people. When Galian fell in battle against the Nameless One, Cleolind took up his sword Ascalon herself, tracked the beast to a great valley containing a miraculous orange tree, and was healed and empowered by its fruit. She drove the Nameless One away, banished Galian from Lasia, and he fled to Inys, where he fabricated the story of rescuing the Damsel. Cleolind then founded the Priory of the Orange Tree—a house of mages whose purpose is to slay wyrms and protect the South from Draconic power.

Loth is furious at these claims, which contradict everything he believes. Chassar then reveals that the Prioress suspects Loth of murdering a Priory sister named Jondu, who last possessed the iron box Loth carried. Loth explains that Jondu was captured by the Yscals, died, and entrusted the box to Donmata Marosa, who gave it to Loth. Chassar accepts this but delivers devastating news: anyone who finds the Priory can never leave, to protect its secrecy. Loth is to remain a prisoner for life.

In his desperation, Loth invokes Ead's name, and Chassar reveals the final blow: Ead Duryan is actually Eadaz du Zāla uq-Nāra, a mage and sister of the Priory, whose identity Chassar fabricated. She was planted in Inys on the Prioress's orders to protect Queen Sabran and will return to the Priory once Sabran gives birth. Reeling from this betrayal, Loth flees into the passages and encounters the woman in green, who holds fire in her bare hand—confirming everything Chassar said—before she puts him to sleep.