With Caroline and Philip separated from the others by the Frostbiter, they run into more trouble with Jade's arrival, while the rest of Vera's team find themselves in the abandoned crystal mines of the Mogriffs' mountain.
- Accidental Pervert: After Amelia falls through the ventilation tunnel and lands on top of Alan, she finds herself sitting with her crotch on his face. She calls him a pervert and kicks him in embarrassment.
- Berserker Tears: While arguing with Vera, Tinsley sheds these in her tiredness of all the fighting and recent adrenaline rushes.
- Call-Back: The authors bring up Jade's canon knack for animals to explain how she's able to convince the Frostbiter to leave peacefully with an offering of food.
- Cliffhanger: With Philip and Caroline captured, Jade enters the abandoned mines with Tyrian, Rosetta and Quinn to hunt down the rest of Vera's team.
- Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are: When Jade realizes that whoever the Frostbiter chased to the rocky maze is still around, she orders her troops to find them while also calling out loud to give the trespassers a chance to show themselves on the count of three. She ends up finding Caroline and the wounded Philip when the former speaks too loudly in her worry over the latter.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Jade tells Tyrian that she'd rather catch Vera's team alive so that there's a greater chance one of them talks, he believes that she wants to torture one of them to loosen their tongues, eliciting a facepalm from her.
- Decapitation Presentation: Tyrian offers to hunt down the intruders and present their heads to Jade, but she tells him she'd rather take them alive.
- Evil Colonialist: When Tinsley learns that Queen Elisabeth drove the Mogriffs out of the mountains before establishing the crystal mines, she thinks it was wrong to rob the Mogriffs of their home and starts believing they wouldn't be so hostile if the settlers hadn't started the fight.
- Facepalm: Jade has this reaction to Tyrian's Comically Missing the Point moment.
- Fresh Clue: Jade and her troops realize the Frostbiter was hunting someone who's still around when Tyrian discovers Amelia's fur hat that's still warm from the interior.
- Growling Gut: The Frostbiter's belly actually growls before it tears into the giant rat carcass Jade offers it.
- Heel Realization: Upon learning that the Mogriffs were driven out of their mountain homes out of greed, Tinsley starts considering the notion of them being just bloodthirsty monsters may be propaganda.
- Hypocrite: Tinsley calls Vera out of her willingness to kill even unborn Mogriff hatchlings while having to gall to call them monsters.
- It Can Think: The Frostbiter further shows its intelligence when it understands Jade's message that she's giving it meat in exchange for returning home, and after pondering on its chances against her and the shadow serpents, it decides that while it didn't catch Caroline, it has meat anyway and leaves.
- It Makes Sense in Context: When the injured Philip asks Caroline what's going on outside their hiding place, he wonders if he's delirious from pain when she tells him that "some little blue girl is taming the Frostbiter" and asks her to repeat that.
- I Want Them Alive!: Before going after the rest of Vera's team in the mines, Jade tells Tyrian she wants them alive if possible so that there's a higher chance of getting answers out of them.
- I Will Only Slow You Down: With the Frostbiter having injured Philip whom Caroline has managed to drag to a space between rocks, he tells her to survive without him and even plans on distracting Jade and her troops, but Caroline adamantly refuses to abandon him. They're found in the midst of their argument, though, and taken captive.
- Know When to Fold 'Em:
- When Jade offers the Frostbiter meat in exchange for returning home, the Super-Persistent Predator that has chased Vera's team outside its territory still wants a taste of Caroline's blood. However, conceding that it's been driven hungry and tired as well as sensing that Jade and the shadow serpents are a credible threat, the Frostbiter gives up on its hunt and leaves with the offered meat.
- When Caroline and the injured Philip are discovered by Jade, they surrender without objection.
- Living Crashpad: Alan ends up serving as this for Tinsley and Amelia when they fall into the mines in the chapter's beginning.
- Loud Gulp: Caroline gulps as she witnesses Jade soothing the Frostbiter and when she finds herself facing Jade's red eyes.
- Morally Bankrupt Banker: Discussed. It's revealed that when Meridian's largest deposit of light crystals was discovered in the mountain housing the Stone Nest, Amelia's family used the merchant guilt's resources and connections to build up the now abandoned mine to compete with the wealth of the mining city of Peniculus. Alan accuses Amelia's family of using the hardworking miners to make profit for themselves, which she doesn't take kindly.
- No One Gets Left Behind: Caroline refuses to heed Philip's request to escape without him, leading to both of them being captured.
- Out-of-Character Alert: After the Frostbiter leaves, the Mogriffs comment that it's unusual of the territorial predator to be this far off from its usual hunting grounds, leading to Jade and the soldiers figuring out it was chasing someone when Tyrian finds Amelia's discarded hat.
- Ow, My Body Part!: Amelia complains about her head this way after falling down the ventilation tunnel.
- Pet the Dog: Jade determines that the Frostbiter's aggression is just because it's hungry, so she provides it food and allows it to run off instead of fighting it. She also quickly agrees to give Philip medical treatment when he and Caroline surrender, with Ymir commenting afterwards that act to be merciful.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Jade invokes this by explaining that she showed mercy to Philip and Caroline because they weren't a threat and could be more useful alive.
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Vera, firmly believing there won't be peace until the Mogriffs are extinct, accuses Tinsley of childishness when the latter expresses her wish for finally having a peaceful life to the point of considering to cease the hostilities with Mogriffs.
- Sins of Our Fathers: Tinsley's unwillingness to harm Mogriff offspring stems from her belief a child doesn't deserve to die for something their parents did.
- Tears of Fear: Caroline sheds these while she and Philip are hiding from the fighting Frostbiter and Mogriffs.
- Understatement: When the amazed onlookers question how she was able to tame the Frostbiter so easily (a feat not even Meridian's past queens were capable of), Jade replies with amusement that they're exaggerating and that she merely gave a hungry animal an easy meal, much to Ymir's bewilderment.
- Villainous Medical Care: Jade promises to provide Philip with medical treatment in exchange for his and Caroline's surrender, and when she orders the Shadowkhan to take them to the fortress' medical wing, she sends along the Mogriff the Frostbiter injured.
- Weapon Twirling: Tyrian twirls his knives in anticipation of finding the intruders.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Tinsley reproaches Vera when the latter stubbornly rejects the former's realization that the Mogriffs' reputation as monsters may be the result of the conquests on their ancestral lands.
