Before dawn, Shae receives a phone call from Hilo on the morning she had expected to dine with her family. Hilo sounds near panic and orders Shae to stay put until a car arrives. When Shae asks whether something has happened to Grandda or Lan, Hilo finally tells her that Lan is dead; workers found Lan’s body in the water at the Docks, drowned.

Maik Kehn arrives in Hilo’s car to bring Shae to the family house, but Shae insists on stopping at the bank first. Although Maik has been ordered to take Shae straight home, Maik agrees when Shae says Hilo will understand. At the bank, Maik waits outside because Maik is heavily armed.

Shae opens a safe deposit box she has not touched in two and a half years and retrieves all of her jade. Shae puts on her earrings, bracelets, anklets, and choker, then sits on the floor as the power of the jade floods back into her. The experience overwhelms Shae with exhilaration, recognition, guilt, and doubt, but the sensation of reclaimed power carries Shae past her hesitation.

On the drive to the Kaul house, Shae is torn between immense grief over Lan’s death and the intoxicating return of her jade senses. Shae mourns Lan as the steady, nonjudgmental center of the family, but another part of Shae’s mind turns toward vengeance. The conflict leaves Shae outwardly still and unreadable.

At the house, Shae finds Hilo in the kitchen surrounded by armed Fists. Hilo appears controlled, but Shae’s restored Perception senses Hilo’s jade aura as violently unstable. Shae tells Hilo she is going with him and knows where they should go. Hilo embraces Shae and whispers that he is going to kill them all.