Chapter 3: Beneath Borrowed Faces

After leaving Silkveil Manor, Evaris and Maeris enter Vespera under vampire disguises, hoping to gather information without exposing their true identities as evolved zombies. Vespera proves far more advanced and dangerous than expected, forcing the two to carefully navigate vampire society while maintaining their borrowed faces. Their investigation leads them to the Vespera Guild, where they make an unexpected discovery: there was more than zombie settlement and they’re not the last of their kind. There they meet Veyra, who becomes an important source of information and an increasingly trusted ally. While gathering intelligence, Maeris repeatedly encounters Prince Caelan Arvayne, whose obvious interest in her disguised identity gives her an opportunity to get closer to Vespera’s upper class. Their interactions eventually uncover a painful connection between Caelan, the destruction of the Hollow, and the death of Maeris’s mother. At the same time, Evaris conducts his own investigation and infiltrates a gathering frequented by high-ranking supernatural figures. There he encounters Varkhar Ironhowl, the powerful Alpha of the Ironhowl Pack. The confrontation turns violent, and after realizing he cannot defeat Varkhar directly, Evaris bites him in order to escape.