Chapter 57

Veya is dragged through the dungeons by Arkyn's guards, her wounds healed but her mind invaded and Kaan's weald stolen. She is thrown into a cell and discovers her niece Kyzari imprisoned in the adjacent cell, starved and broken by her father Tyroth's abuse. Veya reveals Elluin's diary to Kyzari and sits with her as she reads it, learning the truth about her mother's love for Kaan and her own existence.

Veya is violently escorted through a tunnel by fae guards under Arkyn's command, her body intact but her mind ravaged from the mending process and the Mindweft's intrusion into her thoughts. Arkyn has confiscated Kaan's weald and uses it as a plaything while Veya fights and screams every step. When she resists at her cell, Arkyn strangles her into submission, activating sleep-repressing runes on her temples that burn like brands. She is thrown into a sparse dungeon cell and shackled to a hook in the ground. Before leaving, Arkyn reveals he has been throwing people into the Pits of Khindard to fund his coup against Kaan, and threatens that he will have the Mindweft continue violating Veya's mind unless she convinces the prisoner in the next cell to eat. Veya discovers that prisoner is her niece Kyzari, barely alive, pale, and emaciated. Their reunion is violent at first—Kyzari nearly strangles Veya—but recognition of Veya's true identity calms her. Through fragmented conversation, Veya learns that Kyzari was abused by her father Tyroth as a child, used as a bounty for political favor, and that she recently offered herself to the Creators to escape his control. Kyzari also reveals she has given her heart to someone. Rather than dwell on Kyzari's trauma, Veya unwraps Elluin's diary, which she managed to conceal from the Mindweft's invasion, and passes it to Kyzari. Veya explains that the diary belonged to Kyzari's mother and encourages her to read it. As Kyzari reads through accounts of poisonings, the love between Kaan and Elluin, and Kyzari's own birth from that love, Veya holds her hand and comforts her through the emotional weight of finally knowing her mother. At the chapter's end, Veya tells Kyzari that her mother—Elluin—is somehow still alive, fierce and mighty, giving Kyzari a reason to survive.