Liff escapes the crowd in Landfall and runs toward the hills, knowing the town is about to execute Miranda, Fabian, Paul, and Portia. Because Liff remembers versions of events that have happened many times before, Liff understands that time and place are unstable and uses those memories to reach the dying forest and the Witch’s cave far faster than should be possible.

Liff finds the Witch, Avrana Kern, waiting in her cave and demands that Kern stop the executions. Kern believes they are already too late, but Liff insists that the moment can still be changed. Liff names Kern and takes her hand, and Kern’s two birds arrive as if answering the story’s cue.

Liff and Kern return to Landfall in no time, arriving as the four prisoners stand on the scaffold with nooses being placed around their heads. Kern’s alien appearance and ancient presence frighten the crowd into silence, but Molder identifies Kern as an outsider and orders the militia to seize her and fetch another rope.

Kern’s presence unnerves the militiamen, who slow and stop under Kern’s stare while one bird whispers to Kern and the other circles overhead. Kern addresses the captives rather than Molder, telling Miranda and the others that they have finally gathered and that the solution is now in Liff’s and the birds’ hands because they can see the pattern.

Kern steps closer to the scaffold, and the tension breaks when someone fires. The shot strikes Kern’s shoulder, but instead of blood, darkness bursts out and rises into the sky as a storm of crows. The birds exchange information, forming a collective mind and calling to each other and to Liff.