Chapter 3

The protagonist retrieves Elluin's diary from hiding and prepares to flee the palace with it, knowing a Bloodlace's arrival threatens to expose the paternal line of her unborn child. She encounters Ayda—the princess whose form she borrowed—awake and aware, and leaves her with a warning and bloodstone before departing through hidden passages.

The protagonist descends through the palace with Elluin's diary bound beneath her bodice, her mind racing with the implications: a Bloodlace has arrived on dragonback, and once she gives birth, the paternal line will reveal the child's father is Kaan, not Tyroth, potentially sparking war. She navigates the servants' wing, avoiding detection, and reaches a locked cupboard where she uses a potion from Roan to unlock it. Inside, she removes her glamour and noble clothing, revealing her true leathered form, and finds Ayda—the princess she impersonated—unconscious on the ground. As she redresses Ayda in her own servant's clothes, Ayda awakens and fixes her with a searching gaze, her eyes finding the diary bound at the protagonist's ribs. Ayda does not scream or betray her; instead, she whispers that she won't speak of what she knows. The protagonist realizes Ayda shares her certainty that Tyroth caused Elluin's death, not postpartum bleeding as history claims. Offering Ayda a pouch of bloodstone to escape Arithia, the protagonist is refused—Ayda says she cannot leave. The protagonist warns her grimly that the world is unkind to females, bastards, and those marked by clips in their ears (nulls), then departs into darkness, leaving Ayda alone on the floor.