After returning to Iantas, Talasyn rests in bed and studies the new red scars running across her right hand and forearm. The pain has vanished, but the marks remain vivid, and the healer can only offer salve because the wounds were caused by unprecedented aethermancy created when Talasyn and Alaric combined their powers against the Voidfell.

Talasyn feels ashamed of the disfigurement, especially in the beauty-conscious Dominion court, but Alaric's entrance shifts her attention. He has avoided the healer and hidden in his dressing room, and Talasyn realizes the Moonless Dark has changed him as well. When she asks him to sleep beside her, he hesitates, but she insists.

Talasyn turns Alaric's face toward her and sees the black void-scar spreading across his cheek, nose, and eye. Neither of their wounds hurt. Talasyn kisses his scars, and Alaric's vulnerability gives way to humor and tenderness, easing the tension between them.

Their tenderness becomes intimacy, and both use closeness to affirm that they survived the catastrophe. When Talasyn tries to hide her arm again, Alaric stops her and tells her the scars are battle marks because she helped save the world. Talasyn answers that he saved it with her and acknowledges that she fought as he taught her.

As their intimacy deepens, Talasyn realizes she may be falling for Alaric, but the thought terrifies her because of the larger conflicts, obligations, and secrets between them. She pushes the softness away and asks him for roughness instead, turning their closeness back into a safer, more combative pattern. Alaric's fear from the crater resurfaces, and he angrily tells her not to risk her life again, insisting her safety matters.

Afterward, Talasyn and Alaric lie together in silence. Alaric begins to say that sometimes he wishes something, but Talasyn, afraid of what tenderness might lead them to admit, interrupts by curling against him and saying goodnight. Alaric holds her and traces patterns on her shoulder until she falls asleep.