Chapter 49

The protagonist wakes in an unfamiliar stone room in what appears to be Dhomm, disoriented after accepting Kaan's málmr and witnessing him decapitate Hock. She discovers she has been healed and dressed by someone, and encounters Kaan's hostile sister Veya, who cryptically warns her not to break Kaan again—suggesting he has been hurt before.

The protagonist wakes in a panic from a nightmare, struggling to piece together recent traumatic events: the Fate Herder, a colk's death, two males fighting over her, Hock's attack, and Kaan's brutal intervention ending with his decapitation of Hock. She realizes she is wearing Kaan's málmr and has been cleaned, dressed in a black silk shift, and healed—her head wound from the mace completely sealed with no scarring, suggesting a Runi's work. Examining herself in a mirror, she notices her body's strong reaction to the oppressive heat and momentarily experiences a vision of pulling a leather-bound book from a hidden cavity behind the mirror, but the memory crumbles before she can grasp it. When she checks the cavity, she finds it empty. Kaan's sister Veya enters, a fiercely beautiful woman with sun-kissed skin and ember eyes, who immediately expresses hostility toward her. Veya cryptically explains that accepting a málmr means something significant and warns that Kaan was badly hurt trying to save her from a terrible fate, hinting at some prior injury or heartbreak. When the protagonist mysteriously calls Veya by her name despite having no memory of knowing her, Veya becomes intensely emotional, insisting the protagonist remember her. The protagonist dismisses it as confusion from hunger and locks Veya out. She then moves to the balcony and discovers she is in Dhomm, overlooking a vast city nestled on a bay with multiple moons in the sky, something about the western point drawing her curiosity.