A few days after Helena’s previous collapse, a note on her lunch tray announces another transference that night. Ferron arrives at eight, silent and businesslike, and Helena submits because resistance is useless. This time Ferron applies his resonance more carefully, but the pressure still crushes Helena’s consciousness, makes her vision turn red, and leaves blood or warmth running from her eyes. While Ferron is fused with Helena’s mind, Helena deliberately floods him with hatred, but Ferron ignores the provocation and withdraws slowly rather than violently.

Helena wakes from the procedure partly paralyzed, disoriented, and unable to remember who Ferron is. Ferron tells Helena she had a seizure and says he is in charge of her care, using warmth and resonance to relax Helena’s rigid muscles. When Helena asks whether she knows Ferron, Ferron avoids a direct answer and sends Helena to sleep, telling Helena she will remember when she wakes.

When Helena wakes again, Helena remembers and begins screaming through a feverish relapse. In delirium, Helena feels compelled to run away but also believes Helena needs to find something first. Helena wanders into the icy courtyard rain, trying to cool her burning head, and Ferron carries Helena back inside. After Helena repeatedly tries to escape, the doors and windows are locked and Helena is bound to the bed, where Helena endures violent nightmares of the Institute transformed from its golden past into a blood-soaked ruin.

As the fever breaks, Helena is physically weakened again and troubled by the memory of having sought comfort from Ferron while not recognizing Ferron. Helena also realizes Ferron understood Helena when Helena spoke in Etrasian, which suggests knowledge Ferron has not explained. During recovery, Helena dreams of older memories of Luc coaxing Helena away from study and showing Helena the beauty of Paladia, intensifying Helena’s grief for the city and for Luc.

When Helena can leave her room, the house seems subtly distorted to Helena’s inflamed mind. Stroud examines Helena and says the brain inflammation is improved, though the seizure concerns Stroud; Stroud concludes a monthly transference schedule should work. Soon after, Ferron visits and remarks that it is nearly the winter solstice and that Helena was supposed to be gone already, meaning Ferron will now keep Helena through winter. Ferron warns that some items will arrive for convenience, not affection.

The next morning Helena receives new boots and long shearling gloves designed to cover the cold manacles. The gifts allow Helena to walk without immediate pain from the freezing floors and metal restraints. Helena recognizes the practicality of the gesture but refuses to feel gratitude, deciding Ferron is preserving Helena’s health only because Helena remains useful.