The prologue establishes the fantasy setting and foreshadows key events and motifs in the novel. Despite its appearance as a prologue, the scene here actually depicts an event that occurs at the end of the novel, when Sarai topples from the citadel during the explosion and is impaled on a wrought-iron fence below. Laini Taylor leaves the girl unnamed in the prologue, however, creating the impression that this is a past event, not a future one.

Because this scene is framed as a prologue, Taylor implies that it precedes the main sequence of events in the narrative, an effect that is strengthened by the next scenes in Chapter 1, wherein Lazlo experiences the sudden erasure of Weep.