Eugenides' reaction to the knowledge that he's killed a man, knowing that he became the Thief in part so that he would never have to do it.
Pol's death. Sophos is heartbroken and dreads the thought of having to tell his children. Eugenides, who had come to like and respect him, mourns as well.
The Queen of Attolia
Eugenides' desperation when Attolia decides to cut off his hand.
Attolia remembering how, when she first seized her own throne, she tried to appoint her childhood nurse as an attendant and was refused. When she rode to her nurse's house personally, the woman tells her that people claiming to be Attolia's men tried (unsuccessfully) to abduct her husband and son. The nurse then says that while she knows Attolia is seeking a person she can trust, she cannot be Irene's old nurse anymore, and there is no one whom Attolia can trust.
Attolia observes that Eddis, the queen of a country that had just been at war with hers, is safer in Attolia's palace than Attolia is herself.
Attolia is hit with a moment of pure terror and despair when she sees Eugenides motionless in his cell at Ephrata and thinks that Nahuseresh poisoned him.
How cruel of the gods, she thought, to send her a boy she would love without realizing it. How appropriate that the bridegroom she would have chosen to marry be poisoned. Who could contest the judgment meted out by the gods?
The King of Attolia
While the king is alone in his room gazing out the window, Costis approaches him and is shocked to see tears on his face. It's only after being dismissed that Costis realizes that the king is looking at the mountains of Eddis, which will never be home again to him. Realizing that the man he's loathed as a petty, vain, goatfoot usurper is in fact desperately homesick finally turns Costis towards sympathy for him.
Return of the Thief
Pheris spends the first half of the book under the assumption that he's going to be killed soon, probably by his own grandfather Erondites.
One by one, Eugenides' attendants end up dying in battle—Hilarion, Xikos Sotis. The special efforts made to keep Philologos, a married heir, away from danger by keeping him near the king backfire when a bomb targeting Eugenides goes off. In the end, the only one left out of those who remained his attendants from the third to the sixth book is Ion.
