After Kaine sends Helena away emotionally but the city checkpoints have already closed, Helena remains beside Kaine on the sofa, shaken and ashamed. When Kaine asks why Helena is crying, Helena admits that she feels lonely and that kissing Kaine hurts because Helena believes Kaine does not even like her. Kaine challenges that assumption, and Helena explains that Kaine made Helena feel as if the parts of Helena that are not useful still deserve to exist. Helena drinks the last of the whisky, Kaine falls asleep, and Helena eventually dozes off beside Kaine.

In the morning, Helena wakes tangled with Kaine on the sofa, painfully hungover. Helena uses vivimancy to control the nausea, slips away while Kaine remains deeply asleep, and vomits on the way back to Headquarters. Helena berates herself for wasting the opportunity Crowther wanted: Kaine had responded to Helena genuinely, but Helena recoiled because Helena wanted the intimacy to be real.

At Headquarters, Soren notices Helena’s loose hair and asks what happened, prompting Helena to lie about brambles. Helena then retreats to Helena’s room, scrubs Helena’s body under scalding water, and braids Helena’s hair tightly until no loose curl remains, trying to erase the memory of Kaine’s touch and restore control over Helena’s appearance.

Later, an orderly named Purnell summons Helena to Crowther. Crowther brings Helena into the underground tunnels, where Ivy, disguised like a boy, is guarding a restrained Aspirant intercepted on the way to Hevgoss. Crowther explains that the man is difficult and needs to survive further persuasion. Helena discovers that Ivy has tortured him with vivimancy by separating layers of skin beneath the surface while leaving his nerves intact. As Helena heals him, the prisoner recognizes Helena, insults Helena as Holdfast’s foreigner, exalts the Undying as new gods, identifies himself with the Lancasters, and threatens to retaliate horribly against Ivy if he becomes Undying.

After Helena finishes, Crowther and Ivy resume the interrogation, and Helena wanders through the underground tunnels to escape the screams. The tunnels repeatedly lead Helena back to a large, eerie chamber like an abandoned church, forcing Helena to confront what the war has made Helena: someone willing to climb over tortured bodies, sell herself, and destroy Kaine Ferron if that is what victory requires. While waiting through later rounds of torture, Helena rethinks the previous night and decides that stopping short may have been useful because it left Kaine wanting more. Helena concludes that Kaine’s desire and obsessive nature must be cultivated until they can be redirected onto Helena.

Before Lancaster finally breaks, Ivy admits that Ivy likes hurting prisoners and asks whether vivimancy can permanently remove memories, explaining that Ivy’s sister has a fugue and should never remember what happened. Crowther later has Helena heal Lancaster again after burning and drugging him; Lancaster hallucinates, confuses Helena with Ivy, and alternates between violent threats and degrading fantasies. Helena asks why Crowther does not kill Lancaster now that Crowther has information, but Crowther says Lancaster may still help identify the guard Morrough sought in Hevgoss and serve as evidence. As Crowther escorts Helena out, Helena confirms that Ferron’s healing succeeded, and when Crowther notes that Helena returned dishevelled after being out all night, Helena claims the checkpoints closed and Helena had to sleep there.