Bree wakes in Nick’s room aching and exhausted after collapsing in the ogof. William’s notes explain that Sel carried Bree back, that Excalibur is back in the stone, and that Alice arranged food for Bree. As Bree remembers Vera, her ancestors, the dead Squires, and her forced role as Arthur’s Scion, Bree grieves the violence woven into both her family history and her new destiny.

Sel bursts in searching for Nick and reveals that Nick has been taken. In the great room, Sel explains that Isaac mesmered Sel, removed Sel from the Lodge, and likely helped Lord Davis abduct Nick. Sel believes Nick is being held to prevent the Table from gathering during Camlann, since Nick is now understood to be Lancelot’s Awakened Scion rather than Arthur’s.

William presses Bree for information about her powers and the visions in the cave. Bree explains that Vera was an enslaved ancestor on Samuel Davis’s plantation, and William’s records confirm that Samuel Davis was once Arthur’s Scion. The group pieces together that Vera survived pregnant with Davis’s child, creating Bree’s hidden branch of Arthur’s bloodline, while Davis’s wife Lorraine had a child by Paul Michael Reynolds of Lancelot’s line, making Nick and Lord Davis biologically Reynoldses rather than true Davises.

Tor calls the Regents’ emissary, causing a fierce argument. Tor calls Bree’s kingship an accident and a mistake, which enrages Bree and Alice because it minimizes slavery and Vera’s assault. Sel insists Bree is the king, Alice defends Bree, and Tor storms out after nearly attacking Alice. The group then debates whether to involve the Regents, how to find Nick, whether Bree must choose a Squire, and how the Order will react to Bree’s unusual powers and Arthur’s presence.

Overwhelmed, Bree retreats to the balcony, and Sel follows. Bree tells Sel what Bree withheld from the others: Sel’s mother was present in Bree’s memory of the hospital, knew Faye, helped protect Bree’s family from the Order, and appeared lucid despite supposedly being doomed by Merlin blood. Sel realizes that if Merlins do not inevitably succumb as the Order teaches, the truth could upend the Order’s laws and imprisonments. As Sel acknowledges Bree as his king and hints that Bree needs a Kingsmage, Bree resists because Sel is still Oathed to Nick, while Arthur and Vera’s voices remind Bree that war has come and Bree will not face it alone.