After Ferron leaves, Helena steals his discarded newspaper and hurries back to her room, fighting her fear of the house’s shadows. Reading it, Helena is shocked by the date: Novembris 1788. Her last clear dated memory is from early 1786, which means Helena has lost nearly nineteen months of the war beyond a blur of endless hospital shifts.

The newspaper repeats New Paladia’s official story that Helena is the last fugitive of the Order of the Eternal Flame and has been imprisoned at Spirefell for public safety. It also frames the Ferrons as victims of the Holdfast regime and claims Kaine Ferron was once falsely accused of assassinating Principate Apollo Holdfast, whose murder triggered the war. Helena remembers Luc’s grief and reluctance to become Principate, rejecting the paper’s portrayal of Luc as power-hungry.

As Helena reads further, she notices that public reports describe the High Reeve’s executions without naming Kaine Ferron. Helena concludes that Ferron’s identity as High Reeve is being deliberately concealed, likely by Morrough, to preserve paranoia, prevent Ferron from gathering power, and make Spirefell a hidden trap for anyone attempting to rescue Helena. Other articles reveal grain shortages, political triviality in the Guild Assembly, a Paladian envoy entering the Eastern Empire, and frequent society mentions of Aurelia Ferron.

An editorial about labour shortages horrifies Helena when it becomes clear that Stroud is promoting a state-backed breeding program to produce more alchemists. Helena reasons that the program will target desperate prisoners from the Outpost, using food, lodging, and retrials as coercive incentives, and realizes Stroud’s files may have been used to select candidates from Resistance records.

After hiding the newspaper, Helena showers and discovers several scars she cannot remember, including a large chest scar that looks as if her sternum was split open and left to heal without vivimancy. Other healed wounds mark her calf, stomach, ribs, and right palm, where seven small punctures form a familiar circle. Helena also finds the one scar she does remember, a thin cut along the left side of her neck.

The next day, Ferron returns Helena’s cleaned cloak and takes her outside again. When Ferron later leaves, Helena tries to re-enter the darkened house alone and suffers a severe panic attack, triggered by the black hallway reminding her of the endless darkness of the stasis tank. Ferron finds her, drags her back to her room, and demands an explanation. Helena admits that unknown dark spaces make her feel as if she will disappear and never be found. Ferron, after silently studying her, says he had wanted to break Helena but now believes he cannot exceed what Helena has already done to herself.