At the border, gryphon fliers arrive a day early, speaking familiarly with Xaden about a shipment. They warn a venin horde destroyed a nearby village and is heading north toward the trading post opposite Athebyne. When the male flier threatens to ransom Violet, Xaden’s shadows halt them, and the fliers depart to rally their drift.

Violet realizes every rider in Xaden’s squad bears a rebellion relic and that she is the outsider. Feeling betrayed by Xaden—and by Tairn and Andarna for their silence—she confronts them, lightning cracking as her anger flares. Xaden insists he aids “fliers” to fight venin, not dragon riders. He explains venin are real, powerless inside Navarre’s wards, and that the only thing that kills them is the same material powering those wards.

Xaden gives Violet a dagger forged with that material, asserting leadership hides the truth and that Dain’s touch made secrecy necessary. Violet connects her father’s warnings and missing texts to systemic erasure of history. She believes the venin are real but refuses to trust Xaden.

They fly to Athebyne and find the outpost inexplicably abandoned. Xaden orders a search and brings Violet to a tower overlooking the Poromish trading post, where a gryphon drift approaches. He presses Violet about Dain’s parting words and touch, warning she wouldn’t know if he read her memories.

Garrick recovers a War Games envelope from Colonel Aetos. As Liam spots something ominous beyond the trading post, Xaden reads the assignment: “survive if we can.” Violet realizes Dain likely stole her memory and exposed their visits. Xaden concludes leadership emptied the garrison and sent Fourth Wing here to die.