Terisa desperately wants to be able to fade away before the Castellan returns to break her. She wants to return to the childhood self-defense mechanism that allowed her to survive the abuse she received from her parents. But to her dismay, she has lost this ability, for here in Mordant she has become to much of a real person to be able to fade away like she used to...But the Castellan didn't listen to her. He took hold of her shoulders and kissed her like a blow. Then he did hit her; she staggered against the wall and fell. It was the second time he had hit her. The first time, she had been full of audacity. She had told him that his wife would have been ashamed of him. She could almost have foreseen that he would hit her. But this time she was begging. Please don't do this to me. And he hit her anyway. Like her father, he didn't stop.
And she finally realizes that the reason she cannot fade is her attachment to Geraden. For the first time in her life, someone means so much to her that she cannot bear fading away. She also feels that she has failed him, and the combination of fear of the Castellan, fear for Geraden, and shame for having failed Geraden has her in an emotional upheavel. Terisa has learned how to love for the first time in her life, and it is this knowledge that makes her "real".
She is sitting on the floor of her cell, propped up against the wall, where she landed from the Castellan's blow, when the Tor comes for a visit. He pleads with her to reveal where Geraden has gone. He tells her that the King has given the Castellan permission to do anything to her that he wishes, and that the King doesn't understand that the Castellan has been pushed too far and is now mad. He points out to Terisa that Orison is under siege, and that Geraden is safe from any pursuit. The Tor tells her that once Joyse understands what the Castellan will do to Terisa , with the King's permission, he will be horribly harmed, and may perhaps lose what little is left of himself.
And Terisa, with her new strength from her love for Geraden, refuses.
Her next visitor is Artagel. He has also come to her cell to find out where Geraden has gone. He wishes to find Geraden so he can kill him. And he tells Terisa that she must be evil in some way, the cause of Geraden's murder of Nyle.
Terisa sends him away, without telling him anything about Geraden's whereabouts.
Her third visitor is Lebbick.
To try to save herself, Terisa agrees to tell him anything he wishes to know, with the exception of where Geraden is. And she does, telling him the answers to all of the questions he has been asking all along, about the assasination attempts on herself and why Gilbur and Eremis think Geraden is such a threat:"And King Joyse wants me to hurt you. He wants me to find out who you are - what you are."
A suggestion of yearning came into Lebbick's voice, a hint of wistfullness. "Sometimes - a long time ago - he used to let me get even with his enemies. Sometimes. Men like that garrison commander - But he's never given me permission to hurt someone like you."
Terisa suggests that the dead, faceless man is really the physician rather than Nyle. She tells the Castellan to make Artagel look at the dead body very closely to see whether or not it is really Nyle's."They want Geraden dead or ruined because he really is an Imager - a kind of Imager no one has ever seen before."
Lebbick leaves, with another of his threats.
""While I'm gone, remember something. Even if that is Underwell's corpse, it doesn't prove Nyle is alive. It doesn't prove anything about Geraden or Eremis. All it proves is that some shit-lover is still plotting something. If you want me to arrest the whore-bait "hero of Orison", don't show me Underwell is dead. Show me Nyle is alive."