In Aprilis 1787, Kaine repeatedly summons Helena to secret meetings after his duties end, often late at night. Amaris carries Kaine to a rooftop where Helena can avoid checkpoints, and Kaine obsessively checks Helena for injuries before allowing himself to relax. Helena understands that Kaine’s terror comes partly from Helena having once exploited his fear for someone he loved, and Helena reciprocates by searching Kaine for hidden wounds, especially nullium shards that slow his regeneration.

Their meetings become both solace and evidence of mounting fear. Kaine clings to Helena with possessive panic, insisting Helena belongs to him, while Helena promises she will stay and later imagines taking Kaine away across the sea. When Kaine repeats his vow to protect Helena with unusual compulsion, Helena asks about Kaine’s mother, and Kaine finally recounts the trauma he has kept buried: his mother was tortured and experimented on, doctors dismissed her suffering, and Kaine believed he could repair everything by killing the Principate.

Kaine explains that a later assignment to terrorize a conquered family broke him. Durant handed Kaine a little girl, and rather than obey, Kaine ran and booked passage for himself and his mother. When Kaine returned for his mother, Kaine’s enemies had already brought her a corpse as punishment, and Kaine later concluded that going home that night caused his mother’s death. Helena tells Kaine that Helena is not his mother, not a hostage, and not fragile; Kaine begs to get Helena out of the war, but Helena refuses to abandon the fight while others continue to suffer.

At Headquarters, the Resistance deteriorates further. Lila regains resonance but remains physically and emotionally depleted, with severe surgical scarring that limits her movement; Helena prepares a treatment plan, only to learn Luc has requested that Helena be kept away from both Lila and himself. Pace implies Luc is more lucid but not stable, and Helena recognizes that without Luc functioning as the Resistance’s keystone, Crowther increasingly relies on Kaine for sabotage and misinformation against the Undying.

Trapped at Headquarters, Helena turns to research with Shiseo on alchemy suppression. Shiseo designs a nullium cuff that disrupts resonance, but Helena determines it does not fully suppress power and proposes an internal nullium spike through the wrist to erase resonance more completely. Shiseo’s disturbed reaction makes Helena confront the brutality of the idea, especially if Kaine were captured, so Helena rejects the stronger design as unnecessary.

As the war worsens, Kaine is injured more often by effective nullium weapons. Sometimes Amaris comes alone and carries Helena to hidden places where Kaine lies wounded, unable to remove deep shrapnel. Helena keeps medical tools ready, performs surgery by torchlight while Kaine refuses unconsciousness, and comforts him through blood loss and shock. Overwhelmed by guilt, Helena apologizes when Kaine cannot hear her and repeats Kaine’s own promise back to him: Helena will take care of Kaine.