Siyavash is accused of something he did not do by a stepmother he refused, and the only clearing available is the old one: ride through the fire. He does it, in white, and comes out with his clothes unmarked.

Being proved innocent does not save him. He is sent to the war, makes a peace that is honourable and that his father will not honour, and goes into exile in Turan rather than break his own word. What happens to him there is the wound the rest of the poem is about, and it is why Kay Khosrow matters.