Chapter 8

Raeve meets with Sereme, her commanding officer in the Fíur du Ath rebellion, who orders her to stand down from killing the bounty hunter Rekk Zharos, who has been hired by the Crown to eliminate members of their cause. The chapter reveals the nature of their relationship: Raeve is bound to Sereme through a blood contract that allows Sereme to inflict pain through a runed vial, a binding Raeve deeply resents as a form of enslavement rather than salvation.

Raeve enters Sereme's lavishly purple office in the Ditch and immediately antagonizes her commanding officer, digging blood from under her nails on Sereme's desk. Sereme informs her that a parchment lark was sent with new orders and reveals that Rekk Zharos, a legendary bounty hunter, has arrived in the city, hired by the Crown to stop their recruitment of young elemental conscripts. When Raeve eagerly volunteers to assassinate him, Sereme refuses and orders her to lie low—no jobs, no rescues, no random killings until Zharos leaves. Raeve argues this is a mistake, that one of their members will die if they don't act, and pushes back on Sereme's broader strategy of incremental actions rather than directly assassinating King Cadok Vaegor. Sereme uses the blood vial around her neck to inflict pain on Raeve when she becomes insubordinate, reminding her that she is bound to obey. Raeve challenges Sereme's priorities and questions her loyalty to the cause, particularly regarding the treatment of nulls versus elementals. Sereme defends her decisions, claiming she saved Raeve's life and that Raeve should be grateful. Raeve bitterly reflects on how she was coerced into the blood bind under false pretenses of revenge and freedom, and internally grieves her dead cellmate Fallon, whom she promised to experience the world with. She escapes into a mental landscape—a frozen lake—to process her pain before returning and defying Sereme by leaving the office without permission, refusing to accept her current existence as living.