Chapter 18

Trapped in the Citadel as panicked crowds besiege the gates and dragons enforce a lockdown, Kaan, Roan, Pyrok, and the narrator devise a desperate plan: Roan will use a rune charged with Kaan's blood to blast through the Bothaimian ore wall. The explosion succeeds catastrophically—far larger and louder than intended—and Kaan collapses from blood loss immediately after.

The narrator observes the city in chaos from a third-floor hallway: civilians chanting outside the gates while Bothaimian dragons and guards maintain a brutal lockdown. The group—Kaan, Roan, Pyrok, and the narrator—huddles in hiding, unable to escape through the sealed gates. Roan proposes using a rune he accidentally discovered that can melt Bothaimian ore, but it requires fresh dragon blood to activate. Despite the narrator's resistance born from concern for Kaan's safety, he agrees to provide his blood. They gather near a white urn in the western courtyard, where Kaan cuts his palm and bleeds into snow and a flask. Roan paints an elaborate rune on the wall with the diluted blood, then the narrator provides a fresh parchment lark that Kaan's dragon Clode ignites. The lark carries the flame to the rune, which detonates with unexpected violence—the explosion is far larger and louder than Roan predicted, blasting a massive hole in the wall and spraying molten ore everywhere. The narrator realizes they are now discovered and exposed. Kaan immediately collapses from the blood loss required to fuel the rune.