Chaol, con­fined to a wheel­chair, waits until Nes­ryn leaves before sum­mon­ing the ser­vant Kad­ja to request infor­ma­tion about the attack on Rifthold. He strug­gles with his inabil­i­ty to speak her lan­guage flu­ent­ly but man­ages to con­vey his need for news about his home­land. Con­cerned about Nes­ryn bear­ing the bur­den of grim news alone, he tasks Kad­ja with gath­er­ing infor­ma­tion from the docks. Despite know­ing Kad­ja like­ly reports to the palace roy­als, Chaol dis­miss­es the risk, pri­or­i­tiz­ing his people’s fate over polit­i­cal cau­tion. His frus­tra­tion with his phys­i­cal lim­i­ta­tions sur­faces as he wheels him­self for­ward, deter­mined to remain active despite his cir­cum­stances.

Chaol then meets Prince Arghun in his lav­ish cham­bers, where the prince’s cold demeanor and focus on triv­i­al­i­ties like his prized pea­cocks con­trast sharply with Chaol’s urgency. The prince’s flu­ent use of Chaol’s lan­guage and his eva­sive respons­es high­light the ten­sion between them. Chaol, des­per­ate for answers about Rifthold, con­fronts Arghun direct­ly, but the prince claims he can reveal noth­ing due to the watch­ful eyes of the court. The meet­ing ends abrupt­ly, leav­ing Chaol frus­trat­ed and pow­er­less, his anger com­pound­ed by the humil­i­a­tion of being escort­ed out by ser­vants.

The chap­ter delves into Chaol’s inter­nal strug­gle as he grap­ples with his phys­i­cal lim­i­ta­tions and the polit­i­cal games of the khagan’s court. His encounter with Arghun leaves him doubt­ing whether the prince is lying, but the con­fir­ma­tion of Rifthold’s sack­ing weighs heav­i­ly on him. The ser­vants’ pity and his own help­less­ness enrage him, under­scor­ing his loss of auton­o­my. The chap­ter cap­tures his grow­ing des­per­a­tion and iso­la­tion as he returns to his room, haunt­ed by the unknown fate of his peo­ple and King Dori­an.

As night falls, Nesryn’s pro­longed absence adds to Chaol’s anx­i­ety. Her fail­ure to return for din­ner leaves him unset­tled, espe­cial­ly after Kadja’s fruit­less search for news. The chap­ter ends with Chaol’s wor­ry mount­ing, empha­siz­ing his emo­tion­al tur­moil and the pre­car­i­ous­ness of his posi­tion in a for­eign court. The unre­solved ten­sion and unan­swered ques­tions set the stage for fur­ther devel­op­ments, high­light­ing Chaol’s deter­mi­na­tion to uncov­er the truth despite the obsta­cles in his path.