The surviving Elyon loyalists from the battle of Snowpoint reach their main camp, only to get more bad news.
- Action Girl: One of Bromwood's captains is his old friend Rotha Vathib whom he considers to be one of their best spear users.
- Advice Backfire: Vera's flashback on her grandfather ends with the advice he gave to discourage her from stopping her efforts to learn archery: "you are not a failure unless you stop trying". This leads her to deciding to undertake on her dangerous quest to accomplish her vendetta.
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: When Vera's grandfather comforts her in her flashback, he places his hand on her head.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Amelia is revealed to have already heard rumors of the Shadowkhan, but she dismissed them as commoners' mass hysteria, only to realize from the current situation she should have given them more consideration.
- Big "NO!": Vera's reaction to Elyon's order to abandon the siege is a Flat "What" followed by three no's that rise in volume.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Bastian shouts "THAT IS ENOUGH!" to cut off the ranting Vera who wants to countermand Elyon's orders.
- Big "WHAT?!": This is Vera's reaction to learning of Phobos' escape from the Infinite City.
- Broken Pedestal: Elyon's order to abandon the siege of Snowpoint and evacuate the north causes Vera to view it as the Light of Meridian turning her back on her people and robbing Vera herself of her lifelong pursuit of revenge on the Mogriffs, thus making Vera the first rebel leader shown to lose faith in Elyon.
- Childhood Friends: Albel has been Vera's friend since they were little.
- Cliffhanger: With Vera having restored her resolve to avenge her grandfather, she has Albel tell her fellow nobles to immediately meet with her.
- Closest Thing We Got: Bastian Bromwood, the commander-in-chief of Elyon's northern army, is 35 years old, but he's still relatively young to command an army as large as he has. Though he likes to think his militaristic dedication and aptitude for warfare enabled that, he knows the major reason to be the rebels' lack of people properly qualified (in other words, having both experience and a formal military training) for the task.
- Harmful to Minors: It's established that when Vera's beloved grandfather was killed, she was there to witness when his body was torn to pieces, which is something Albel is certain played a pivotal role in the girl growing up into the revenge-obsessed young woman.
- Heroic BSoD: Unable to do anything about the army following Elyon's orders to pull back to the capital as consolidation to deal with the new threat, Vera views it all as an utter failure of all the years of training and fighting she put towards her goal to avenge her grandfather and has an emotional breakdown before deciding to accomplish that goal by her own means.
- Interclass Friendship: One aspect of Vera's behavior being unlike that of a noble lady is her preference to the company of noble houses of lesser status and commoners' children.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: While Oskar, who lost many friends while fighting Phobos, is empathetic to Vera's reluctance to fall back, he makes it clear there's no point in throwing away more lives against the enemy that already slaughtered a considerable number of their soldiers and is still an enigma to them.
- Loud Gulp: Captain Bakurk does this under Vera's Death Glare and declaration that she won't skip the meeting between the commander and captains.
- Old Soldier: Oskar Marsh, one of Bromwood's captains, is an elderly rebel veteran who's always ready to advise his younger comrades.
- The Proud Elite: Amelia was made by her mother to take part in Vera's training in order to learn to mingle with commoners as the future head of the merchant guild. She admits that it helped her hone her swordfighter skills and wits as well as make connections and even take a liking to some commoners she didn't find so uncivilized.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Sult is a former Phobos loyalist who switched sides shortly before the end of the war. Bromwood speculates that because of it, he was shipped up north both to test his loyalties and get him out of the capital.
- Revenge Before Reason: Vera is so obsessed with wiping out the Mogriffs to avenge her grandfather that she tries to talk her superiors into defying Elyon's orders and staying to fight the Shadowkhan against all odds. After she's put in her place, she refuses to give up and comes up with a plan involving her fellow noble heirs.
- Shooting Lessons From Your Parents: Vera has a flashback of when she was six years old, she failed to get a single shot on her target despite multiple efforts and called herself a failure with teary eyes. Her grandfather comforted by saying that with practice combined with her determination, she's bound to become even better at archery than him.
- Spiteful Spit: Vera spits at the ground while refusing to rest until all the Mogriffs and Shadowkhan are dead.
- Stunned Silence: Bastian relaying news of Phobos' escape from the Infinite City leaves everyone in shocked silence until Vera breaks it. The same thing happens when Bastian tells about Elyon's order to retreat to the capital.
- This Is Gonna Suck: This is Bastian's general reaction to having to tell his captains (especially Vera) that Elyon has ordered them to abandon the siege of Snowpoint and withdraw to the capital.
- Turncoat: Bastian Bromwood was a captain in Phobos' army until he defected to Elyon's side. There's also the Escandor captain Sult who switched sides near the end of the war.
- Underestimating Badassery: Vera is so determined to have her revenge that she refuses to consider the army's chances against the Shadowkhan are rather limited.
- Undying Loyalty: Albel's established to be supporting Vera because he wants to ensure his friend will be able to return home safe and sound as well as put her grandfather's death behind her.
- What the Hell, Hero?: When Vera furiously objects to abandoning the siege (and thus her quest for revenge) and withdraw to the capital to the point of suggesting they ignore Elyon's orders, Bastian sternly puts her in her place and states that no matter how they feel about it, they are still loyal to Elyon, and refuting her commands is treason.
- Why Isn't It Attacking?: Upon reaching the valley the enemy camp is situated in, the Mantis Khan that relentlessly pursued the rebels suddenly halt on the hill, much to their confusion. Though the exact reason isn't revealed, it looks like something's stopping the Khan, making them look almost frustrated and wait like cats preying on mice.
- Xanatos Gambit: Amelia's mother, the head of the merchant guild, taught her about the risk/reward ratio by using as an example their town's act of secretly helping the rebels while professing loyalty to Phobos; should the Rebellion triumph, Castwell's Peak will benefit from aiding them, but should Phobos triumph, the town can avoid any charges of treason by giving him any information they've about the Rebellion. Both of said outcomes made helping them worth the risks.
