Bree drifts in and out of consciousness after the attack, hearing urgent voices mention hellhound saliva, aether, and a healer. Bree wakes in an old, expensive-looking house near campus with both arms heavily bandaged. Nick is at Bree's bedside and explains that Nick brought Bree to their healer after Bree was injured.

As Bree pieces together the night, Bree remembers Nick fighting and killing the creature. Bree identifies Nick as Legendborn, which surprises Nick because Nick assumes Bree must be an Oathed Page. Bree is wary, fearing threats, police, or memory erasure, but Nick insists Nick brought Bree there to save Bree, not harm Bree.

Nick explains that the creature was not a simple isel but a ci uffern, or hellhound, a Lesser demon that was partially corporeal and nearly able to attack fully in the physical world. Because Bree ran toward it unarmed, Nick angrily warns Bree that Bree nearly lost both arms. Nick then gives Bree basic information: Shadowborn are demons that cross through Gates, feed on negative human energy, and can become corporeal by using aether; Legendborn fight them to protect humanity.

Nick removes Bree's bandages and reveals newly healed, acid-like damage from the hellhound's corrosive saliva. Nick explains that William used aether to accelerate Bree's healing. Bree thanks Nick and William, then admits Bree saw magical activity at the quarry, saw Sel and Tor, and resisted Sel's mesmer after a short time. Nick is shocked because mesmered memories are not supposed to return, and Nick realizes Sel would react dangerously if Sel learned this.

Sel arrives outside the room in a fury, arguing with Nick and William about Nick failing to call Sel to close the Gate and about escalating attacks: five in one week, with stronger Shadowborn appearing farther from Gates. William intervenes, reminding both boys that the Code of Secrecy matters because Bree can hear them. Nick urgently warns Bree to let Sel mesmer Bree again and not reveal that Sel's previous attempt failed.

Bree tries to flee but is too weak and trapped three stories up. Sel enters, recognizes Bree from the quarry, and identifies Bree as Onceborn, a human unused to aether. Nick blocks Sel briefly, but Sel forces the confrontation forward. Sel orders Bree to sit, prepares a minimal memory erasure, and asks Bree's name while Nick gives Bree's legal name, Briana. Remembering that pain may have helped Bree resist before, Bree bites the inside of Bree's lip just before Sel presses a hand to Bree's forehead, and Bree's memory cuts out.