This chapter begins with Violet completing Archives duty. She descends to the Archives, which feel like a second home to her due to her dad’s occupation. She runs into an old friend–Jesinia. Jesinia and Violet studied together back when Violet thought she was going to become a scribe. Jesinia is dead/HOH, and uses sign language to speak. Violet is fluent in sign language, so they catch up. Not only is Violet requesting texts for her professors, but she also asks Jesinia if she can find her childhood book of dark fables titled The Fables of the Barren. While waiting, she runs into Professor Markham, who is leading a tour of first-year scribes through the Archives. She provides some wise words of wisdom to the newbies, who aren’t too happy about the stuffy air that fills the Archives.
Jesinia returns with bad news, not only was she unable to find Violet’s book, but she can’t even find anything about wyvern. They don’t exist in the directory. Violet realizes how odd this is, since the Archives have at least one copy of every book in Navarre.
During breakfast, their squad gained two members from a dissolved squad. The two members refuse to sit with any students that have a rebellion relic, which makes Violet not want anything to do with them. Her squad discovers that Sawyer has manifested his signet–metallurgy. He can manipulate metals, but as of now he can’t control his signet. The older students talk about how the relics they receive from their dragons are conduits for the power and energy given by their dragons. If they don’t manifest a signet in around 6 months, something really bad may happen. Quinn keeps making explosion noises, so it’s inferred that there may be a pretty violent death involved.
Violet finds out that Gleann, the dragon who bonds weakly and whose rider died at the first flight training, has rebonded. He bonded with a rider named Caroline Ashton, who’s friends with Jack Barlowe.
After flight training, Dain confronts Violet. He’s pissed that she can’t keep her seat on Tairn and didn’t tell him. He scolds her, because dragons need all of their energy for battle and fighting, not helping their rider keep seat. Violet tells Dain that the reason they’ll never work out romantically is because Dain constantly focuses on what she’s incapable of doing, rather than what she’s accomplished.
As she heads back to campus, she hears someone screaming. Jeremiah, another student, has manifested his signet, which turns out to be inntinnsic. Inntinnics are almost always condemned to death from the start. Jeremiah is losing his mind, calling out everyone’s darkest secrets as he tries to reason with the physical pain. Xaden appears next to Violet, insisting that she think of something random, so Jeremiah can’t spill her secrets. Jeremiah turns to Garrick, and is about to shout his secrets to all of Basgiath when Professor Carr comes up to him from behind and breaks his neck. Jeremiah’s death is seen as merciful, since he was going to be killed regardless. Sawyer notes that Professor Carr is the wielding professor.
The next scene jumps ahead to a dream that could be a possible flashback. Violet’s father tells her that her path is in the Scribe Quadrant, and that scribes have the most power of all the quadrants. He reminds her to always check her sources when receiving information. In her dream she keeps hearing a voice that says “wake.” This voice becomes progressively more urgent, and when she finally opens her eyes she’s surrounded by 7 riders, who begin to attack her. She recognizes the woman who unlocked the door for them, but doesn’t name her yet. The group consists of Oren and other unbonded cadets. Her dragonscale armor keeps her from getting seriously hurt. She hears Tairn and Andarna freaking out in her head, guiding her through each move she needs to perform. She takes down a couple of the cadets, but eventually ends up getting choked out by Oren. He lets go of her throat, but replaces his hands with a knife. He’s about to slit her throat, telling her that Tairn is his, when the door flies open. Suddenly, everything stops. Everything in the room besides Violet is frozen in time.
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