After Ferron leaves Stroud’s examination room, Stroud removes Helena’s paralysis, but Helena remains frozen by the revelation that Morrough intends to force her into pregnancy. Stroud treats the order as a useful alternative to Helena’s resisted transference treatments and claims Helena should be grateful to contribute to a valuable bloodline. When Helena calls the plan rape, Stroud threatens that if Ferron fails, Helena will be returned to Central and subjected to other candidates until pregnancy occurs.

Stroud’s threat leaves Helena desperate. After Stroud departs, Helena searches the house for any possible escape or tool, but finds nothing. Ferron returns the next evening, avoids Helena’s eyes, and says the assault will not happen that night because she will not be fertile for three more days. Helena breaks down when Ferron asks about her healed eye, overwhelmed by the contrast between his concern for her sight and his obedience to the order.

Helena notices Ferron looks haggard and asks why he was tortured. Ferron says he was punished because public speculation has identified him as the High Reeve after Lancaster’s killing and Aurelia’s incident exposed inconsistencies in his public role. Ferron explains he killed Lancaster because Lancaster endangered his assignment, then resumes his control over Helena by checking her memories through resonance before leaving her alone.

As the appointed time approaches, Helena spirals through memories of wartime pregnancies, failed births, and grieving mothers. Her former certainty that sterility protected her from such loss is gone, and she is trapped between terror of pregnancy and terror of Stroud’s threatened alternatives. When Ferron enters, Helena asks him to kill her or give her a way to die, but her request hardens him, and he orders her to the bed.

Ferron carries out Morrough’s command while Helena dissociates and tells herself it is better than being sent to Central. The assault ends abruptly when Ferron withdraws and goes to the bathroom to vomit. Afterward, Ferron leaves without speaking, and Helena, numb and trembling, sits fully clothed under the shower until the water turns cold.