The chapter opens as the allied fleet gathers above the Bonehouse Trench, the deepest part of the Abyss, on the second day of spring. Loth observes from the Dancing Pearl as ships from every allied nation assemble. The Unceasing Emperor, clad in armor, thanks Loth for his company. Queen Sabran arrives aboard the Dancing Pearl with her retinue, including Ead and Tané. A formal meeting takes place between Sabran, the Unceasing Emperor, Warlord Pitosu Nadama of Seiiki, and King Raunus of Hróth. The rulers exchange courtesies but underlying tension simmers between East and West after centuries of estrangement. The Eastern dragons submerge beneath the waves to gather strength for battle.

After the rulers disperse, Loth reunites with Ead and Sabran in private. He learns from Ead that Margret has gone to Cárscaro to participate in the siege there, which alarms him. Ead tells Tané that Niclays Roos is fighting a fever and cannot join the battle. Tané reveals she cannot ride a dragon because she has been disgraced and the riders refuse to speak to her. Ead instructs her to keep the rising jewel close.

As the third day of spring approaches, the Imperial Dragon announces the Nameless One's stirring beneath the Abyss. The Eastern dragons summon a storm to bolster their power. Battle erupts suddenly when fire explodes across the Seiikinese warship Chrysanthemum, and the black High Western Fýredel attacks the fleet, extinguishing every lantern. Chaos spreads as wyverns and fire-breathers descend upon the ships, tangling with Eastern dragons in the sky. Tané fights on deck, using the rising jewel's white light to repel a wyvern, then killing another with her Inysh sword. She is haunted by a flash of memory—Susa's beheading—but her siden power protects her from dragonfire and replenishes her strength.

Tané battles through multiple wyverns, using shields, spears, and swords scavenged from the fallen. She dives into the sea and swims to the Defiance as an Ersyri ship explodes. Fýredel perches on the wreckage and taunts Queen Sabran, warning that the Nameless One is coming and mocking the allied leaders. A Seiikinese elder dragon erupts from the water and destroys a wyvern in a spectacular display. A lookout spots the Draconic Navy—twenty Yscali ships approaching from the west.

Tané uses the rising jewel's sterren power to draw waves over Fýredel, forcing him skyward. She takes up a fallen archer's bow with four remaining arrows. Then a second High Western, pale as a crane, descends on the Defiance and shape-shifts mid-landing into the witch Kalyba, who demands the jewel, calling it "the imbalance." Kalyba wields Ascalon, which transforms with her body. She taunts Tané as "the seed of Neporo" and challenges her to combat. Recognizing that arrows and conventional weapons are useless against a shape-shifting witch, Tané sets down her bow and summons her siden power into her hands, preparing to face Kalyba directly.