After leaving the wetlands breathless and in pain, Helena is taken to Ilva’s office to report the chimaera she saw. Ilva questions the impossibility of chimaeras and takes seriously Ferron’s warning that more will come, becoming distant as she considers the threat.

When Helena tries to leave, Ilva asks about Helena’s progress with Ferron and suggests that the new healers should free Helena to focus on him. Helena, unsettled by the implication, redirects the conversation to the hospital’s shortages and explains that she has been processing willow bark for salicin before the spring floods ruin access to the wetlands.

Ilva reveals that she knows about Helena’s father’s low-district apothecary and Helena’s past chymistry work, but treats it as useful rather than incriminating. Helena asks for someone with chymistry experience to help finish batches if she is called away, but Ilva says assigning an official assistant would require Falcon Matias’s knowledge and the chymists are already occupied.

Ilva then remembers Shiseo, a Far Eastern metallurgist from the Empire who came to Paladia seeking asylum. Although Helena is confused because metallurgists would normally be valuable at the forge, Ilva says he is not allowed near the Athanor Furnace because he is an Easterner and suggests he may enjoy observing Paladian chymiatria.

Ilva dismisses Helena so she can send scouts and call a Council meeting about the chimaeras. Helena goes to her lab to prepare the willow bark and sphagnum, then returns to the Tower, where Lila’s belongings show that Lila has returned.

While bathing alone, Helena finally thinks about Ferron’s rage during their confrontation. She realizes she had expected him to hurt or kill her because of what she believed about the Undying, yet Ferron drove her away instead of harming her. This restraint confuses Helena and forces her to reconsider what kind of person Ferron is.