Helena returns to the Outpost expecting to continue meeting Kaine Ferron, but the factory door is locked and the tenement is empty. After the same happens again, new necrothralls begin intercepting Helena elsewhere and delivering Kaine’s encoded intelligence reports, showing that Kaine has ended the in-person exchanges without ending the flow of information.

With her evenings suddenly free, Helena works in the laboratory with Shiseo on chymiatria that could support vivimancy, including tonics for blood regeneration and bone repair. At the hospital, Elain Boyle becomes more popular as a healer, but Helena notices that Elain’s desire to comfort patients leads Elain to treat symptoms instead of causes, sometimes worsening recovery.

In late Augustus, Basilius Blackthorne fails to retake the southern tip of the East Island and responds by setting Blackthorne’s own army on fire, sending the burning soldiers into Resistance territory. The fire spreads through the dry city, overwhelming the hospital with burns and lung injuries. Helena works until exhaustion blurs time, then realizes she has missed more than a week of collecting Kaine’s reports and leaves for the Outpost despite being barely able to stand.

At the Outpost, Helena discovers too late that the Undying have retaken it. Combat necrothralls herd Helena through the ruined encampment and corner her in an alley. Helena tries to use resonance to defend herself, but exhaustion causes burnout; with no alchemy left, Helena kills the closest necrothralls by knife, is stabbed through the calf with a metal spike, and barely escapes to the tenement landing. Because the door has a resonance lock and Helena’s resonance is gone, Helena cannot get inside, so Helena bandages the wound, tries to stay awake, and faints from pain and blood loss.

Kaine appears and at first assumes Helena’s injury is a ploy by Crowther, but the blood trail and Helena’s confused explanation make Kaine realize Helena is truly burned out and injured. Kaine questions Helena about the hospital’s healing methods and learns that Helena sometimes uses vitality to keep combatants alive under triage protocol. Kaine carries Helena into the unit, numbs the injured leg, transmutes the spike out instead of pulling it through the wound, cleans the puncture, and performs only enough regeneration to stabilize Helena. When Helena later tries the resonance lock and still feels only burnout, the door opens anyway while Kaine remains across the room.