Quicksilver

Saeris goes to Elroy’s glassblowing workshop, as the quarters where she is squatting with her brother, Hayden, are not secure enough to hide the gauntlet. Elroy refuses to hide it, fearing the consequences if Queen Madra’s soldiers find it. Despite his past aid to rebel groups who sought to overthrow the queen, Elroy is horrified at Saeris’s gall in stealing the gauntlet. He orders her to return it, but, although she respects the man, she refuses. The two speak tersely to one another about their differing approaches to survival: Elroy thinks it better to work hard and avoid notice, while Saeris thinks rebelling is important, even if it doesn’t prove effective in overthrowing the immortal Madra, who has ruled for a millennium.

Elroy points out that the guards could discover Saeris’s strange ability to telekinetically move metal, which she dismisses as insignificant despite not really believing this. Elroy argues that Hayden will lose his remaining innocence if Saeris is killed for the theft, but Saeris counters that Hayden is already 20, and that she is fighting for her brother’s future.

As she searches for her brother, Saeris reflects that she and Hayden are more different than similar. She finds him, battered, outside a tavern where he tried to cheat at gambling to buy food and water. Saeris plants the gauntlet on Hayden and enters the tavern, targeting Hayden’s assailant, Carrion Swift, a man with whom she has a sexual history. Saeris cites a deal the two made, where she wouldn’t interfere with his criminal activities, and he wouldn’t gamble with or fight Hayden. Carrion accuses Hayden of trying to stab him; Saeris insists that Carrion must still be at fault. He flirts with her, and she agrees to join him for a drink if he returns what Hayden lost gambling. Saeris seethes, noting that her irritation with Hayden is like Elroy’s irritation with her.

Saeris accuses Carrion of having an ulterior motive in wanting to spend time with her. He admits it: He has heard about the stolen gauntlet. Saeris feigns ignorance, but Carrion points out that all the Third Ward is at risk if the guardians suspect one of its residents to be hiding their property. He urges her to take the gauntlet to his warehouse in the Second Ward to protect Third Ward residents. She reluctantly agrees, but when she leaves the tavern, Hayden is gone.

Saeris frets, worried that Hayden will find the gauntlet and act impulsively. She hurries through the streets, drawing attention, dizzy from the alcohol she consumed with Carrion and lack of water. She passes familiar shops and many smugglers or charlatans offering fake magic, as real magic is outlawed. She runs toward a scream, certain she’ll find Hayden. Guardians chase her. When she reaches The Mirage, a tavern where she and Hayden have been squatting in the attic, she finds dozens of guardians surrounding Hayden.

To protect her brother from imprisonment, torture, and death, Saeris admits to stealing the gauntlet. Hayden tries to protect her in return by claiming he is the true thief. Saeris pulls out a dagger and fights the guardians using skills taught by rebels. She kills two guardians and maims another. As the rest of the phalanx advances on Saeris, she urges Hayden to go to Elroy. She calls Hayden a burden, intentionally being cruel to stop him from following her.

As a child, Saeris daydreamed of being chosen to be a lady’s maid in the palace, which offered her a life of splendor. Later, her fantasies transformed to being invited to the palace and finding a way to kill Queen Madra for the injustice of her reign. Her situation in the palace now is a stark contrast to her daydreams. 

She waits, imprisoned, in a hot cell for hours before Captain Harron arrives to question her about her fighting skills. She refuses to answer; he warns her that speaking back to the queen will likely make Saeris’s death more painful. When Harron offers her water, Saeris gulps it down, criticizing him for not understanding the strict water rations in the Third Ward. She accuses him of never asking questions of the queen because dissent will cause him to be ostracized to the Third Ward. Saeris contends that the brutal conditions in the Third Ward have turned its residents into weapons against the queen.

Harron leads Saeris deeper into the palace. She is puzzled when a heavy internal door needs to be unlocked. It leads them to an enormous, echoing room. A platform in the distance, with a strange lever protruding from it, draws her attention. 

Queen Madra enters. She asks how a “low-born [rat]” (49) like Saeris learned how to fight so well. When Saeris insists (falsely) that she is self-taught, Madra strikes her and accuses her of learning from the Fae, who she fears have “come for [her] at last” (51). Saeris, who’s always assumed the Fae are just a myth, is puzzled. Madra believes Saeris a Fae-sent assassin. Saeris plays along, claiming that the Fae intend to kill Madra and seize her throne. Madra gestures at the room and claims that if the chamber is undisturbed, the Fae cannot return. Madra intends to kill Saeris’s loved ones and then destroy the Third Ward in retribution for Saeris’s theft.

Madra orders Harron to torture Saeris. Harron claims to be sorry when Saeris accuses him of ignoring suffering from a position of privilege, but then he runs her through with his sword, cruelly twisting the blade. Harron tells Saeris that her death will be quicker than those of the Third Ward residents. However, when he tries to stab her again, she—surprising herself—magically stops him from striking. She liquifies the metal in the dagger; the liquid pursues Harron, who calls the magic heretical as he tries to escape. He begs her to stop as she struggles to her feet, claiming she will “end the world” (61). Saeris drags herself to the lever, which she now sees is a sword. Harron shouts that if she uses the sword to “turn the key” and “open the gate” that she will “unleash [hell]” (62). Saeris, thinking of her doomed friends and family, ignores him.

Saeris pulls the sword free and strikes Harron with it. The ground begins to transform into liquid metal. Saeris feels herself dying as the pool of liquid silver overflows. A menacing figure who Saeris sees as Death personified rises from the pool. He goes to strike her with a sword of black metal, but then sees the sword she holds. Death places a silver chain around Saeris’s neck and wearily urges her not to die. He picks her up, and she faints from the pain.