Yrene Towers works in the White Pig, a squalid tavern and inn in Innish, a city on the southeast coast of Erilea. A mysterious woman has been in the inn for two days, armed to the teeth and wearing a dark black hood. Yrene struggles with her job, which she had only hoped to have for a month but has now had for a year. The pay is minimal, and many of her tips are taken by the owner, Nolan, and the other barmaid, Jessa.

Celaena, the mysterious woman, also hates Innish. She’s been sent by Arobynn to train with the Silent Assassins of the Red Desert as punishment for freeing the people who are enslaved in Skull’s Bay. Bruised from Arobynn’s beatings, Celaena wants a fight and has started a number of brawls on her way to Innish. She contemplates running away to the southern continent and starting a new life, but she decides to continue to the Red Desert.

Yrene feels the mood shift toward violence in the tavern. She contemplates warning Celaena about the presence of mercenaries, as her mother, a healer from Fenharrow who died defending Yrene from Adarlanian soldiers, would have done.