At dawn, Lyria approaches the Red Hand-occupied base in disguise, baiting leering guards to usher her inside. A big militiaman, Torrow, tries to claim her, but Duncan—a Picker lieutenant with a metal arm—intervenes and brings her to the leader, Picker. After a tense exchange about wife-taking and child brides, Lyria is sent to a holding room of roughly twenty girls; Duncan removes the youngest, Lea.

Alone with the captives, Lyria lays out the brutal fate awaiting them and demands no informants. To win their trust and arm them, she yanks her own molar and installs one of Fig’s device-teeth, then outfits most girls the same, with Freckles assisting and the fierce child Lion eager to fight. Tails and one other refuse; Lyria warns Tails to keep quiet.

The girls are transported to the Red Hand’s mine fortress, which Lyria assesses as shoddy and demoralized. In barracks, “hens” and a Yellow perform demeaning health checks and dose them with a drugged wine. Fearing betrayal once separated, Lyria orchestrates a distraction and brutally breaks Tails’s jaw to silence her before pairings, accepting the cost to protect the group and their plan.

In a mustering hall, Picker orders decorum as hardened Red Hand enforcers assemble. Harmony arrives and delivers a seductive, militant sermon, recounting her dead children and recasting forced marriage as patriotic duty, promising protection from abusive husbands. Many newcomers are swayed or numbed; Lyria’s core group, having a plan, holds firm.

Lyria resolves to act when the brides are paired, intending to seize weapons and strike from within the fortress while searching for allies and the fates of Victra and Volga.