Chapter 59

The protagonist infiltrates a fortified tower atop an ancient wall using aerial support and earth magic, only to discover it's occupied by armed Fade militants and Bothaimian guards. After a dangerous encounter with a soldier who attempts to kill her through a magical lung attack, she realizes stealth has failed and commits to direct combat.

The chapter opens with the protagonist being flown by Líri toward a white-stone tower on a wall overlooking the nesting grounds. She leaps from the dragon onto the snowy wall while Clode disposes of her dark cloak. Using a magical language, she summons Bulder, an earth entity, to slow her fall and create a stone ledge where she can descend the wall through thick mist. She navigates into a slumber quarters inside the tower structure, finding it eerily abandoned—bedding overturned, meals left unfinished, and all inhabitants vanished. Moving through increasingly ornate hallways decorated with columns carved as Moltenmaws, she discovers the tower is filled with armed soldiers: Fade militants in bloodred garb, Bothaimian guards in white armor on the ground floor, and archers stationed on a mezzanine. A golden-rayed door on the far wall matches the map marking the location of her target, the silver-haired fae she must kill. Before she can proceed, a helmetless Fade soldier emerges, and they recognize each other through a clear bead in his ear. Both attempt a magical attack simultaneously, invoking Clode, a mysterious entity who responds by manifesting in both their bodies. The soldier speaks with greater eloquence and finishes his incantation first, giving Clode cause to favor him; she attacks both competitors internally, causing the soldier's capillaries to burst and his lungs to rupture catastrophically. As he collapses dead, the protagonist realizes the encounter reveals a trap: these soldiers knew she was coming. Enraged and abandoning subtlety, she widens her mental sound snare to maximum and charges into the chamber with drawn blades, prepared for direct combat against the full contingent.