Pre-dawn in the royal kitchen. Steam, hanging cleavers, bamboo baskets. Yun Seol tastes a pot of soup before anyone else may eat.

Yun Seol demonstrates her hidden talent: tasting not just poison but the emotions left in food.

A palace servant arrives with a summons for the bride-selection feast. The kitchen goes quiet.

Yun Seol walks the palace corridors toward the Hall of Shared Cups. Lantern light and ink-wash mist.

Inside the banquet hall. The four prince-heirs and the high priest are introduced.

Court nobles gossip about the commoner taster chosen for the god-feast.

The ceremonial soup is presented and blessed by High Priest Gwan Mu.

Yun Seol tastes the ceremonial soup. Her tasting trance begins.

Inside the tasting trance, Yun Seol sees the Hunger and its connection to all four princes.

The Hunger speaks its claim. Seol recoils back into the real banquet.

The high priest reads the bride's name. The court erupts in applause.

Yun Seol sees the reserve bride's name beneath her own. It is her brother.

Yun Seol confronts High Priest Gwan Mu and learns the cost of refusal.

A brief, desperate moment between Seol and Yun Mu before guards pull him away.

The four princes react to the bride selection. Their private hungers show.

The feast ends. Seol is taken to the west kitchen while Yun Mu is led away.

Night in the west kitchen. Seol writes in her diary and remembers the rules of her seasoning.

The youngest prince, Baek Ha, appears at the kitchen door, still hungry after the feast.

Seol cooks plain rice and chooses a memory to season it with: the day she bandaged Baek Ha's burned cheek.

Baek Ha eats the seasoned rice. The memory of Seol's kindness enters him.

Baek Cheon comes to take Seol to his hall. Baek Ha steps between them.

Baek Cheon and Baek Ha face off in the kitchen. The Hunger simmers under their words.

Baek Cheon leaves. Baek Ha stays by the kitchen door. Seol counts what she has spent.

Dawn. Seol cannot remember her mother's face. She writes the cost in her diary and looks toward Yun Mu.