Lord Blackwood demonstrates his son Orion's decade-long training by having him crack an ancient statue with the powerful Blasting Curse. He proclaims Orion will inherit the family's pure-blood legacy and glory, established long ago to oppose the dark House Thorne. Meanwhile, his younger daughter Elise secretly practices the same destructive spell on the statue without any visible effect, prompting her mother to urgently warn her that girls who study magic face dire consequences and to keep it hidden from her father. Elise is then distracted by news of her sister Ophelia's return, while an unseen observer whispers admiration for an unnamed girl's innate magical talent.