Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of animal cruelty, graphic violence, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and death.

The Arron family is a royal family that raises poisoners, and Natalia is its head. With her sister Genevieve, Natalia Arron examines the nearly naked Queen Katharine, who is one of the triplet queens. Genevieve criticizes Katharine’s thinness, but Natalia reminds her that Katharine is the smallest and youngest of the triplets. Natalia is the closest thing Katharine has to a mother. Tonight, they will host a party that includes a Gave Noir—a poisoner’s feast meant to showcase 16-year-old Katharine’s ability to ingest deadly poisons without consequence. Genevieve points out that they are entering the Ascension Year, in which one of the triplets will kill her sisters and take the throne of Fennbirn Island, with a “weak queen.” Poisoner queens have ruled for three generations, and they always appoint Arrons to the Black Council.

When Genevieve leaves the room, Natalia reassures Kat. A maid brushes out Kat’s long black hair while she strokes her coral snake, Sweetheart, the only venomous creature she doesn’t fear. Katharine knows she looks sickly and that she’s thin from all the poison she’s ingested during training.