Immediately after Enid Rose Ferron’s birth, Helena studies the baby while Kaine keeps his distance, shaken by guilt over the violence and coercion that led them here. Helena forces Kaine to come closer and insists that their daughter belongs to both of them and will never know the world that made them killers. When Enid grasps Kaine’s finger, Kaine’s fear gives way to possessive adoration.

Years pass on the island, where Enid grows into a solemn, curious child who resembles Helena except for Kaine’s silver eyes. Kaine becomes an indulgent and devoted father, carrying Enid everywhere and speaking to her more freely than to anyone else. News from Paladia arrives during the Abeyances: the siege starves the city into surrender, the allied nations praise themselves as liberators, Morrough survives underground, and the abuses of the Tower and repopulation program are minimized or buried while foreign powers focus on restoring Paladia’s productivity.

The political erasure devastates Helena and pushes Lila to a decision Helena has long feared. Lila announces that she must return to Paladia to kill Morrough and preserve the memory of Luc, the Resistance, and everyone the war destroyed. Lila asks Helena to care for Pol, teach her bomb-making, and help her prepare, while Kaine trains Lila brutally in combat vivimancy because both Kaine and Lila understand what killing Morrough will require.

Lila leaves Pol behind with Helena, Kaine, and Enid, giving Pol a white shepherd puppy named Cobalt and telling Pol how to remember both her and Luc while she is gone. Later, newspapers report that Lila Bayard joined a military force, used a mysterious pyromancy bomb to breach Morrough’s underground stronghold, survived a disastrous assault, and emerged from the ruins dragging Morrough’s corpse. Lila’s victory makes her a living symbol of Paladian heroism and gives her leverage to resist foreign control and demand that Paladia confront the war honestly.

While Lila remains in Paladia, Pol and Enid become inseparable on the island. Lila helps rebuild the Alchemy Institute, broadens alchemical certification, and insists that vivimancy become a formal field of study. When Lila finally returns, she says she is taking Pol home and asks Helena to come help lead the new vivimancy department, but Helena refuses because returning would endanger Kaine and because Helena cannot abandon him. Lila warns Helena that Kaine is cold and monstrous to the wider world, but Helena answers that love has darkness in it and that she helped make Kaine what he is.

Enid reacts to Pol’s departure with confusion and hysteria, insisting that Pol is hers and begging to go to Paladia too. Helena tells Enid they cannot leave the island because it is not safe, and Pol, though torn, gives Enid responsibility for Cobalt so she has a reason to stay. Lila and Pol ride away while Enid sits on the cliff holding Cobalt and crying.