Bree returns to her dorm visibly shaken, dirty, and injured after the attack, and Alice immediately assumes someone has harmed her. Bree refuses to let Alice call campus authorities because that could involve Vassals, but Alice believes Bree and shifts into practical care, guiding Bree to the communal bathroom to clean up.

In the bathroom, Bree sees the physical aftermath of the night: muck in her hair, dirt on her skin, a bruise along her ribs, and Nick’s coin at her sternum, which she hides in her pocket. Alice prepares the shower and waits nearby while Bree struggles through ordinary steps, a paralysis that reminds Bree of the weeks after her mother’s death.

As Bree washes the uchel’s filth from her hair, Bree and Alice quietly reconcile over their earlier fight about the Quarry. Bree apologizes for using Alice’s loyalty to get what she wanted and for saying hurtful things; Alice apologizes for blaming Bree and admits she is now frightened for her.

Alice asks what happened, but Bree cannot explain the Order, the demons, Nick, Sel, or the violence she witnessed. Bree asks Alice to trust her, but Alice leaves hurt and worried, and Bree’s fragile control breaks once she is alone.

Immediately afterward, bloodred mage flame erupts from Bree’s hands and arms in the shower. Bree recognizes it as mage flame, but its color and source terrify her because it seems to come from inside her, and Sel already suspects she may be Shadowborn. Remembering Sel’s threat to kill her if necessary, Bree forces herself behind an imagined mental barrier, using the same containment she uses for After-Bree’s rage, until the flames vanish.