Chapter Sixty-Eight

Nesta, Gwyn, and Emerie survive multiple combat encounters during their journey toward Ramiel, including cutting a bridge to escape pursuing males. Reaching the mountain's base, they confront their traumatic pasts and collectively decide to attempt the Breaking—the most difficult path up the mountain—to prove they can transcend their suffering and the rigid rules of their society.

The three women spend their fourth night in a tree using rope for safety as they monitor their surroundings for hunting creatures. Gwyn scouts ahead and spots a ravine with a wooden bridge several hours away, which they race to reach before other competitors. A group of six males pursues them, forcing combat; Nesta, Gwyn, and Emerie dispatch their attackers and claim the title of Valkyries. A second group of males with bows pursues them toward the bridge. When Gwyn is shot through the thigh, Nesta uses archery skills her sister taught her long ago to fire an arrow with rope attached, allowing Gwyn to secure herself as the bridge is cut, sending several Illyrians plummeting into the ravine. The three women haul Gwyn up using the rope despite severe hand injuries. Over the following days, they travel toward Ramiel with limited food and water, Gwyn growing weaker from her wound. Reaching the mountain's base, they debate taking a safe detour versus attempting the Breaking—the most dangerous climbing route. Gwyn breaks her two-year silence, revealing her trauma: during a Hybern attack on the temple, she endured gang rape after refusing to reveal where she'd hidden children, an act that cost her sister Catrin's life. Azriel rescued her. Emerie then shares that her father brutally beat her and killed her mother, leaving her psychologically tormented. Nesta finally opens about her father's death during the war, which she failed to prevent, and confesses her subsequent destructive behavior and abuse of others at the House of Wind. The three women bond through mutual recognition of their trauma and decide collectively to climb the Breaking not for titles, but to prove to themselves that they can transcend their pain and become something new and powerful.