Lemex, however, refuses, thinking he is being tortured. Vivenna excuses the nurse, and asks Lemex for any information that could help her, like how to access the Idrian spy network. Vivenna, Parlin, and the mercenaries arrive at Lemex's house where he is laying deliriously ill, in the care of a nurse. The mercenaries eat Vivenna's seafood and lead her to Lemex's house. They inform Vivenna that Lemex is ill with fevers, and give her a letter written in his hand. The two mercenaries burst out laughing, and tell Vivenna they are joking. Vivenna begins to get an idea to help Siri.

Vivenna and the middle princess, Fafen, discuss their father's decision to send Siri while picking blackberries. She decides that she will send her honor guard back to Idris, as they would be adrift in Hallandren. She wishes Vivenna were in her stead, because she is sure her relative political experience would make her a better representative of Idris in Hallandren. Siri becomes enraged at her father's decision, shouting at her honor guard. Her father argues that he has done what is best for Idris, because in the event of war, the Hallandren could have used Vivenna as a more effective bargaining chip than Siri. She feels suddenly bereft of purpose, now that her sister is marrying the God King in her stead.

In Idris, Vivenna begs her father to reconsider his decision and send her as he originally planned. Siri sits in the carriage taking her to Hallandren, terrified and confused at the last minute switch that means that she must wed the God King. Since the treaty does not specify which princess, at the last moment Dedelin sends Siri instead of Vivenna, who has been trained since birth for life with the God King.

King Dedelin cannot stand the thought of sending his oldest, most beloved daughter Vivenna to marry the monstrous God King to bear him a child. Yarda convinces Dedelin that they could keep the Hallandren at bay for longer if they kept the treaty, which entails sending an Idrian princess to marry the Hallandren God King. Meanwhile, King Dedelin discusses the possibility of a disastrous war with Hallandren with General Yarda. Siri talks to her friend, Mab the cook, about how she is tired of the Idrian traditions of austerity. She is trailed by children, who are fascinated by the flower she carries because it is a breach of the normal drabness maintained by Idrian followers of Austre. She walks in from the countryside to Bevalis, the Idrian capital. Siri, the youngest princess of Idris, considers her rather unimportant position in the Idrian royal family.

Warbreaker book