In Octobris 1786, Helena asks Shiseo to test her resonance for a possible weapon alloy while pretending the request is only curiosity. Shiseo questions her background, learns she came from Etras because her father believed her gifts were too valuable to waste there, and in return asks to examine the unidentified metals found in Gettlich’s blood. During the test, Shiseo finds Helena’s work unusually precise and concludes that steel would waste her strength; Helena is especially suited to a nickel-titanium alloy. Because Helena fears giving Kaine a non-iron alloy would look threatening, Shiseo also writes a steel formula, but Crowther tells Helena to include the titanium option to see how Kaine responds.

Helena’s attempt to expand Elain’s training backfires when Elain complains to Falcon Matias about being overworked. Matias questions Helena’s authority as an apothecary, resulting in a moratorium on Helena’s lab work. Ilva protects Helena’s access by reclassifying the laboratory as Shiseo’s and Helena as his assistant, reducing Helena to errands and foraging duties while allowing Helena to remain near chymiatria.

Meanwhile, Helena waits anxiously for Kaine to acknowledge the alloy slip she gave him, but he says nothing. Kaine instead advances Helena’s combat training from forms to necrothrall-killing techniques tailored to her abilities. Kaine teaches Helena to disable tendons, pierce the brain, and use Helena’s right hand to rip out a talisman, but his physical closeness makes Helena’s resonance and emotions difficult to control.

A Tower alarm abruptly sends the hospital into emergency preparation. Helena goes to the gates for information and learns two teams were ambushed. Luc is dragged in by his unit in a violent rage, screaming that they left Lila behind. When Luc’s uncontrolled flames injure Crowther, Helena takes Luc’s hand and knocks him unconscious through resonance. Althorne orders Luc kept sedated until Lila’s fate is known, while Soren, devastated because Lila is his twin, is told he must act as paladin primary and protect the Principate.

In the hospital, Helena treats Crowther’s broken arm and discovers an old severed radial nerve that had caused his paralysis; Helena repairs both injuries. Soon afterward, soldiers bring in Lila, gravely wounded but recovered. Someone reports that Blackthorne commanded the ambush. Helena realizes Lila is near death from bite punctures, internal bleeding, organ damage, shattered ribs, massive blood loss, and broken bones, so Helena takes command of the healing, orders Elain to maintain Lila’s breathing and heartbeat, and demands blood-supplementing tonics despite objections.

Helena pours vitality and resonance into Lila until Lila stabilizes, knowing Luc would be destroyed by Lila’s death. Lila survives, though still badly injured and scarred, but Helena has pushed far beyond safe limits. When Pace calls for Helena afterward, Helena can barely move, collapses beside Lila’s bed, and is carried to Pace’s records-office cot, where Pace administers a needle and Helena falls into darkness.