The chapter opens with Tané continuing her sea guardian trials, this time with knives. She performs well but is outscored by Turosa, who achieves a perfect score. Onren arrives late with loose hair and Kanperu in tow, but she also throws a perfect score. The Sea General warns her not to be late again. That night, the apprentices are woken and taken to a spring-fed lake for a surprise swimming trial. The Sea General explains that High Sea Guard members must swim better than fish and scatters eight dancing pearls in the lake for twenty-six apprentices to find. Onren retrieves her pearl first with effortless grace, while Tané reasons out where the spring current would carry the pearls and surfaces with hers almost simultaneously with Turosa.

Turosa uses the moment to taunt Tané, mocking peasants and vowing to humiliate her so thoroughly that no commoner will ever be admitted to Clan Miduchi again. Tané responds coolly and considers the rumor that the final trial will pit each principal apprentice against another in a duel, fearing she may face the ruthless Turosa.

The narrative shifts to Niclays, who spends a restless night in the Governor of Cape Hisan's mansion, haunted by guilt over betraying the musician who helped Sulyard. He reflects on his late lover Jannart, their relationship's entanglement with Jannart's arranged marriage to Aleidine, and how Aleidine quietly knew of the affair all along. He thinks about Jannart's granddaughter Truyde and Jannart's son Oscarde, feeling the weight of passing years.

By the next day, Niclays receives permission to visit Sulyard in the jailhouse. For the first time in seven years, he passes through the streets of Cape Hisan, observing its unfamiliar Seiikinese culture and ubiquitous dragon worship. At the prison, he finds Sulyard badly beaten, his forehead branded with characters for "trespasser." Niclays presses Sulyard for details about the woman on the beach who first found him—Sulyard describes a young woman with long dark hair and a fishhook-shaped scar on her left cheek, wearing gray and black clothing. Niclays urges Sulyard to trade this information to his captors in exchange for mercy.

Sulyard then reveals the true purpose of his mission: he and Truyde believe the Nameless One will soon awaken, that the House of Berethnet was never truly what kept him imprisoned, and that a natural cycle governs the balance between Western wyrms and Eastern dragons. They derived these ideas from Niclays's own alchemy books, specifically drawing on the ancient Tablet of Rumelabar's concept of natural balance. Sulyard explains that as the Eastern dragons weaken, the Draconic breeds awaken, and Truyde wanted an Eastern alliance because even weakened dragons are stronger than humans alone. Niclays recognizes Truyde as the true architect of this mission, seeing in her the same obsession that consumed Jannart.

Despite his deep skepticism, Niclays lies to comfort the doomed Sulyard, promising to petition the Warlord on his behalf. He extracts a promise from Sulyard to reveal the woman on the beach to his captors, hoping it might save his life. Niclays departs in the rain, resolved to tell the Governor only that Sulyard wants to help identify a second person who aided him, and prepares for his journey to the capital city of Ginura.