Assistant to the Villain

Blade reveals that he gave the dragon a name and unchained it, which seems to have helped it to calm down. Trystan’s magic allows him to see how painful the chains were. This triggers memories of his own chains, but he returns his attention to the present moment when he sees an inscription on the metal that reads, “The Villain Will Fall” (160). The words remind Trystan of his anger, and he sweeps back inside, secure in the knowledge that the king is about to lose.

Traversing her village square, Evie overhears a woman yelling about how terrible the Villain is, and Evie takes an outlandish poster of Trystan with fire for hair and a forked tongue to hang in his office. The picture makes her wonder about him, his magic, and what events led him to become the Villain, as well as the emotions she’s starting to feel for him. As if summoned by magic, Trystan arrives with news that Evie’s town blacksmith made the dragon’s chains. As she joins Trystan to visit the man, a reluctant terror fills her because “a moment in time that Evie desperately wanted to forget was about to be thrown in her face like a closed fist” (168).