'Ashen remains in which spirits yet dwell. Use to summon the spirits of Jolán and Anna. Spirits of two Swordhands of Night, one of them being possessed by Count Ymir's doll Anna. Together, Jolán's sword and Anna's claws are as bottomless black, and penetrate the enemy's guard. Jolán and Anna were born in a cold, dark gaol, where they were raised, deprived of light, to be Swordhands of Night. Thus were they cultivated to become the most terrifying masters of their blades, though the burden of the deed left their hearts frail and pliant.' Jolán and Anna are twin Numen sisters raised in deliberate dark, the Manus Metyr cult's gaol-discipline cultivates Swordhands of Night by deprivation. Their swordhand becomes truer in proportion to their soul becoming more pliant. The discipline produces unsurpassable swordswomen and unsurvivable people.

'Spirit of a swordhand granted light by the Iris of Grace. Wields a sword of bottomless black that penetrates the enemy's guard. Though it was not by the shining star that she had longed for, thus was her Night illuminated. But this was an at times blinding light, and threatened to expunge the Night entirely.' Jolán is granted the Iris of Grace by Count Ymir, her preceptor, a grace that imposes a kind of imposed peace, a fleeing blessing the Realm of Shadow's priests use to quell their flock. Anna, her twin, is dead and possessed by Count Ymir's doll. The twins fight beside each other in the Spirit Ash the Tarnished may carry forward, the dead sister and the unconvinced living one, their swords bottomless-black, their bond made out of the blackness of the gaol they were never told they could leave.