Lazlo and the rest of the delegates strategize on the best way to solve Weep’s problem. Lazlo wonders why Eril-Fane will not enter the city with them, and why he looks so haunted when he parts ways with the group. The narrator explores Eril-Fane’s feelings from the hero’s own perspective, revealing the intense guilt and self-loathing that he harbors after his relationship with Isagol. He knows that his inner conflict causes Azareen much suffering and wishes that his second-in-command would just let him go, because he cannot ever go back to being the person he was before he committed the deeds that earned him the title of the Godslayer.

Feeling threatened by the presence of Godslayer and his delegation below, Sarai and the other children plan a way to defend themselves. They are at a disadvantage because none of them can manipulate mesarthium, the magical metal from which everything in the citadel is built. Minya is especially bitter that she did not inherit this signature ability from her father, Skathis. Skathis had the power to create metal monsters out of mesarthium and control them, evoking terror in the people of Weep below.