Ead lies awake in her eyrie at the Priory, burning with renewed magical sensitivity after restoring her sacred flame. She aches with longing for Sabran and worries about leaving her unprotected in Inys. While cutting a pomegranate, she accidentally slices her wrist, and the sight of her blood sparks an idea about the riddlebox in the dining chamber.

In the middle of the night, Ead goes to the riddlebox and cuts her palm, letting her mage blood fill the engraved letters on its lid. Recalling Siyāti uq-Nāra's teaching that mage blood is "golden," Ead interprets the riddle's mention of a "golden knife" as a blade coated in her own blood. The box opens, revealing a key shaped like an orange blossom. Sarsun, the ichneumon bird, leads her down a hidden stairway to a vaulted chamber containing the true tomb of Cleolind—the Mother—depicted not as the passive Damsel of Inysh legend but as a fierce warrior. Beneath the coffin, Ead uses the key to open a compartment containing a mysterious white jewel and a tiny scroll. When Ead touches the jewel, she screams and collapses, only releasing it when she regains consciousness.

Chassar tends to Ead, and a translation of the scroll is presented. Written by Neporo, Queen of Komoridu, to Cleolind's sister Siyāti, the letter reveals that Cleolind and Neporo together bound the Nameless One using two sacred jewels, but failed to pierce his heart with a sword. The binding will last exactly one thousand years from the twentieth year of Empress Mokwo's reign—meaning the Nameless One's imprisonment has nothing to do with Sabran's bloodline. One jewel (the "waning jewel") was sent to Siyāti; the other remains on Komoridu. The Prioress is shaken, realizing a past sister hid these secrets, possibly to protect them from Kalyba. She orders scholars to determine when Mokwo ruled, so they can calculate the Nameless One's return.

Ead dreams of Jondu being tortured in Yscalin, grieving for her lost friend. When the Prioress returns, she reports that the archives hold nothing about Neporo or the jewel and declares it an unknown, dangerous form of magic. Ead argues that Kalyba, the ancient Witch of Inysca who forged Ascalon, might know about the jewel and could explain why Sabran dreamed of the Bower of Eternity. Despite the Prioress's deep hostility toward Kalyba—who killed Ead's birthmother Zāla—she reluctantly permits Ead to seek out the witch, though she refuses to let Ead take the jewel, keeping it in her own possession.