Chapter 7

The narrator escapes Arithia through a blood-activated rune portal and rushes toward a hidden burrow where Rasha and her Moltenmaw wait, only to discover a devastating ambush: Rasha and her dragon Furn have been killed by the Thorns (apparently Tyroth's soldiers), who are now hunting the narrator for a mysterious diary bound against her abdomen. The narrator uses a jar of moonlight to escape into a deeper cleft in the mountain.

The narrator battles through a bitter snowstorm in Arithia, guided by magical orbs overhead. Desperate to leave, they reach the city's black wall where a bonded Moltenmaw guards a secret exit marked by a dead weeping wisp. After smashing their vial of colk blood, the narrator cuts their palm and uses their own blood to activate runes that open an arched passage through the wall. Using Bulder's intervention, they narrowly avoid plummeting into the chasm below. Crossing a treacherous cliff path, the narrator receives a divine song from Bulder—the same melody sung to Slátra at Dhomm—signaling danger. They race to a burrow where Rasha waits with her yellow-and-orange Moltenmaw, Furn. Upon arrival, the narrator finds a massive bloodstain and discovers that Thorns (armored soldiers bearing silver headgear) have executed an ambush. Furn lies impaled by obsidian shards in an unnatural position, her body already being burned by the Thorns. Rasha is bound and gagged between two warriors. When the narrator tries to intervene with a command to Bulder, a Thorn kills Rasha by stabbing through her throat from behind. The narrator collapses part of the ceiling with Bulder's help, killing three Thorns, but is struck by an iron arrow. The Thorns converge, seeking a diary the narrator carries—something with power to "change everything." A Thorn commander mocks them for infiltrating the kingdom undetected. The narrator, refusing capture and vowing the commander will one day bow before "the rightful queen," throws a jar of moonlight to create a blinding explosion and escapes into a newly revealed cleft in the mountain wall.