Helena’s captivity returns to routine after her recovered memories unsettle her. Ferron visits only to inspect her mind and later to perform another transference. Because Helena does not resist, the process leaves her less feverish than before, but the experience makes Helena feel as if Ferron is slowly devouring her selfhood. The outcome forces Helena to consider that she may truly be the animancer and that her memory loss may have been her own doing rather than a Resistance safeguard.

As Ferron continues hunting the remaining Eternal Flame members, Helena notices signs that Ferron is repeatedly returning to Spirefell injured or traumatized. Helena suspects Morrough is torturing Ferron because Ferron cannot stay dead. Helena tries to dismiss any concern, reminding herself that Ferron chose to serve Morrough and is hunting the Resistance, but Ferron later senses Helena’s concern during a memory check and mocks her for it.

Helena and Ferron argue about Luc, the Resistance, and moral responsibility. Ferron suggests that Luc’s principles may have caused as many deaths as Ferron’s violence, while Helena insists that dying for someone is not the same as being murdered by someone. Ferron reveals that at least one Eternal Flame killer remains uncaught and vows that this person will die before Morrough does. When Ferron rages against the Resistance and Apollo Holdfast, Helena recognizes the depth of Ferron’s hatred, though Ferron shuts down when she asks whom he hates.

During Aurelia’s vernal equinox party, Helena slips into the main wing to eavesdrop while the necrothralls are distracted. The drunken Undying guests discuss recent murders, including victims killed despite elaborate protections, and Ferron identifies the pattern: the killer is imitating the Celebration Purge executions and targeting Undying who were present that night. The guests also speak casually about Central, where captured Resistance women are being sexually abused and forced into pregnancy; Helena is horrified and ashamed when she realizes how much worse other prisoners’ fates have been than her own.

As Helena returns toward the west wing, Lancaster ambushes her in the hallway. Drunk and predatory, Lancaster reveals that he had been waiting for a chance to reach Helena while Ferron’s thralls were occupied and claims he captured Helena in the ruins after she gutted Atreus. Lancaster assaults Helena and says Helena should have been his. Helena manages to throw Lancaster off balance and flee, but Lancaster catches Helena by the hair, muffles Helena’s attempt to scream, and injects a needle into Helena’s neck.