After Kaine agrees to let Helena search for another way to weaken Morrough without sacrificing him, Helena asks Kaine not to leave. Helena explains that her damaged, disordered memories make Kaine feel unpredictable whenever he is out of sight, and Helena needs to become accustomed to him again. Kaine stays by Helena’s bed, but the conversation turns painful when Helena notices Kaine’s tremors and learns that Morrough’s pull has grown stronger as Kaine has helped eradicate the Undying.

Kaine admits that Kaine does not know how to apologize and wishes Helena had never remembered what happened. When Helena says Helena would relive everything to save Kaine, Kaine lashes out that Helena did not save him, only put them in hell for two years. The remark devastates Helena, who insists Helena tried to return and that Kaine should not have assumed Helena would willingly lose him. Later, Helena wakes to find Kaine still beside the bed and silently resolves to take care of Kaine.

The next morning, Kaine removes the nullium tubes from Helena’s wrists, trusting Helena not to run, attack the servants, or make Kaine regret freeing Helena’s resonance. Helena is overwhelmed by the return of her alchemy, uses resonance to ease the pressure in Helena’s brain, and realizes how badly old injuries have damaged Helena’s hands. Kaine warns that the nullium must be reinserted whenever Stroud visits, then sends Helena the collected research Helena requested.

Helena studies the folio delivered by Davies and finds fragments of arrays, formulas, Shiseo’s notes, Kaine’s handwriting, and likely Bennet’s work. Helena struggles with memory gaps and realizes Kaine may be humoring Helena rather than believing the research can help. Before leaving, Kaine offers to provide materials for Helena to terminate the pregnancy after escaping, forcing Helena to confront the pregnancy as something that might belong to Helena rather than only to Morrough’s program.

That evening, Helena asks Kaine to return and tells Kaine that Helena will not end the pregnancy. Kaine argues that the child will always be seen as the Undying’s bastard, conceived while Helena was Kaine’s prisoner, and urges Helena to leave that burden behind. Helena rejects Kaine’s self-condemnation, says both of them were raped, tells Kaine that Kaine is still Helena’s, and declares that Helena loves Kaine. Helena kisses Kaine, and Kaine finally breaks down, apologizing and saying Kaine loves Helena too.

In the following days, Helena throws herself into reconstructing the array ideas linked to Wagner’s sketch and Cetus’s writings, refusing to imagine a future in which Kaine is left to die. When Stroud is due to visit, Kaine reinserts the nullium, leaving Helena sickened by the loss of resonance. Stroud examines Helena, says Helena is recovering physically but warns that the pregnancy’s final Toll may destroy Helena’s memories, then checks the fetus and discovers with dismay that it is female.