Distracted by Miranda’s earlier talk with Liff, Miranda fails to avoid a militia patrol in Landfall. The men challenge Miranda’s false backstory, question where Miranda works and belongs, and turn their intimidation toward sexualized insinuations. Refugees and townsfolk watch without helping, but a former schoolchild calls Miranda “Teacher,” reminding the crowd that Miranda has some place in local life. The militia let Miranda pass, though the encounter shows how dangerous Landfall has become for anyone marked as an outsider.

Miranda reaches Fabian’s rooms behind the Fix-it, where Fabian, Portia, Paul, and Paul’s busy children gather over dinner and research. Fabian is thriving as a repairer because the town’s infrastructure keeps breaking, but Portia warns Fabian that being too useful can also make local mechanics and their militia relatives resent Fabian. Portia argues that none of their hidden group truly fits in, especially as scarcity and suspicion intensify.

Fabian and Miranda examine data gathered by Paul’s children and confirm that Landfall’s ecosystem is collapsing through cascading failures: rotten forests, exhausted soil, pest outbreaks, and an impoverished engineered biosphere. The group discusses whether to reveal themselves and intervene, but Miranda argues that Landfall’s belief in hostile outsiders would make the town likely to cast Miranda’s group as enemies. Miranda is further unsettled when Portia casually refers to “the farm,” suggesting that parts of the group’s cover may have become more real or more complicated than Miranda understood.

A few days later, Miranda returns from helping with the harvest in cold paddies and observes aquatic beetles thriving as another symptom of ecological breakdown. Miranda thinks through possible technological solutions, including biodiversity repair, engineered parasites, or establishing a viable ecosystem elsewhere, but Miranda remains torn. Intervention might save lives, yet it could also strip Landfall’s people of autonomy and make them dependents of Miranda’s more advanced civilization.

As Miranda passes the Councilhouse, Miranda sees militiamen beating Paul after tearing down one of Paul’s paintings. Paul, unable to speak, hoots and flails while Paul’s children swarm protectively, nearly escalating into a coordinated attack that would expose their true nature. Miranda rushes in, reframes Paul as unwell and harmless, and draws attention onto herself; a militiaman strikes Miranda in the jaw, knocking out a tooth. The shock pauses the crowd long enough for Miranda to get Paul and the children away, but the incident leaves Miranda angry, hurt, and still unsure what duty requires.