Dain arrives to find Violet battered, and Varrish attempts to compel him to use his signet to pull Violet’s memories, dangling truth and jealousy as bait. Violet reinforces her mental shields, draws power from Tairn, and warns Xaden not to come. After a fraught moment, Dain refuses to interrogate an injured cadet and leaves.

Varrish immediately reverts to brutality, punching Violet’s dislocated shoulder until she blacks out. She wakes mended by Healer Nolon, who grimly explains that Varrish plans to break her repeatedly and that he has been ordered to remain nearby to repair the damage. Nolon pointedly asks if Violet’s secret is worth her squad’s suffering; Violet affirms it is.

Nolon then engineers an opportunity: he lures Varrish away under the pretense of consulting on another patient, leaving the antechamber window unlatched. Once alone, Rhiannon insists they must escape, fearing Varrish will kill Violet. The squad commits; Sawyer melts the door hinges with his signet, while Rhiannon and Violet catch and lower the falling door, then they retrieve their weapons.

At the main exit, lesser magic fails against a warded lock. Violet feels a ward-like heat and tingling through a dagger at her hip; touching the lock, she triggers it to open. The squad slips out, their escape owed to Nolon’s intervention, Sawyer’s signet, and the dagger’s unexplained resonance with the warded mechanism.