Ephraim wakes in a lavish suite within Eagle Rest overlooking the shattered city of Olympia. He inspects expert medical work on his amputated leg and other wounds, wonders who paid for such care, and surveys the war-scarred Bellona capital spread along Olympus Mons.

Inside his room, a massive, rune-tattooed Obsidian shaman roasts human bones in the hearth and speaks in riddles about fate. He reveals Syndicate hunters came for Ephraim but were captured, mutilated, and fed to griffins by Freihild’s skuggi. The shaman warns that “Unshorn” is coming and counsels Ephraim to show no fear.

Panicking, Ephraim bolts onto the terrace and commits to a perilous climb down the citadel’s vine-clad stone. His new prosthetic leg proves far stronger than expected, nearly throwing him to his death, but he improvises, survives a long drop and slippery landing, and staggers toward escape across the stone “eagle wing.”

Before he can flee, six armored griffins rise. Godeater, the albino mount of the Obsidian Queen, lands, and Valdir the Unshorn descends in battered white armor. Ephraim tries to talk his way out by invoking the Republic’s Sovereign, but Valdir declares that stealing children is ashwar—a holy crime warranting mutilation and death.

Valdir fires a tether, binds Ephraim, and has Godeater haul him back toward Eagle Rest while he flies alongside. Ephraim’s desperate escape fails, leaving him captured and at the mercy of Obsidian justice.