Ead sets her escape plan in motion. She visits the Priory kitchens, where she finds Loth drugged with dreamroot and working alongside the cook Tulgus. She requests a taste of the Prioress's sun wine and secretly steals a pinch of dreamroot powder from a spice jar. She spends the day practicing archery to maintain appearances, then discovers her saddlebags and weapons have already been moved by Aralaq.

When evening falls, a servant brings the sun wine to Ead's sunroom. She drugs one cup and sends the tray on to the Prioress. After dark, Ead dresses in travel clothes and approaches the Prioress's quarters. She uses an ancient, forbidden technique called "candling"—igniting a tiny flame inside a living body—to incapacitate the two Red Damsel guards by smothering their consciousness with smoke from within.

Inside the Prioress's chamber, Ead finds the wine cup empty but discovers the Prioress awake—she sensed a premonition and refused the wine. The sterren jewel hangs from a cord around her neck, pressed into clay. The Prioress accuses Ead of being corrupted by Inys and invokes the memory of Ead's birthmother Zāla, who also wanted the Priory to protect all humankind, not just the South. The Prioress condemns this worldview, and Ead, connecting details from Kalyba's earlier words, realizes that the Prioress herself murdered Zāla and blamed the witch. Mita Yedanya confirms the killing without remorse, claiming she did it to protect the South and control the Priory's direction.

Enraged but controlled, Ead demands the jewel in exchange for her silence. The Prioress refuses and attacks with a blade, slashing Ead's throat. A violent confrontation ensues. The Prioress declares the jewel will stay buried until the Nameless One threatens the South directly, and she will not allow it to protect a Western queen. Both women draw blades, and Ead challenges the Prioress to let the Mother judge between them.

The scene shifts to Loth waiting in the Lasian Basin forest, where Aralaq had led him through tunnels. The dreamroot is finally wearing off. Eventually, Aralaq returns carrying a bloodied, exhausted Ead, who has the sterren jewel around her neck. Despite her wounds, she urges immediate flight. Aralaq insists on carrying them, refusing to be left behind. Ead entrusts the jewel to Loth's protection and tells him to ride northwest to Córvugar if she loses consciousness. Loth lifts her into the saddle, mounts behind her, and they flee into the night aboard the ichneumon.