Content Warning: This section discusses anti-LGBTQ bias, colonial and sexist violence and discrimination, physical and emotional abuse, murder, nonconsensual drugging and addiction, and the killing of children.

Emperor Chandra, the ruler of the Parijatdvipa Empire, oversees the preparation of a pyre with his courtiers and priests. His sister, Malini, refuses to step onto the pyre, unlike her two ladies-in-waiting. Chandra tries to persuade her, but she continues to refuse, and the priests light the pyre without her in it. Chandra is displeased and tells her to remember that she brought her unhappiness upon herself.

Priya, a maidservant in the city of Hiranaprastha, is in a market full of panicked people trying to get supplies before it’s locked down by the imperial guards. Priya tries and fails to buy beads made from sacred wood from an apothecary. She then meets with a group of orphaned children who are afflicted with “the rot,” which causes plants to grow from their bodies. Though unable to provide the wood they need to stave off the disease, she gives them food. A boy named Rukh pleads for her to help him find work. She agrees but takes him to Gautam first to purchase a small piece of sacred wood.