Four years earlier, on Solstice Eve, Helena visits Solis Splendour, the Bayard family home near the Alchemy Institute. The house has become a convalescent refuge for wounded members of the Eternal Flame, and the holiday gathering feels subdued after five years of war.

Sebastian Bayard welcomes Helena inside, where Lila Bayard moves through the room on her prosthetic leg, visibly eager to prove she is ready to return to combat. Helena knows the Council will soon hold a hearing on Lila's fitness, and that Helena's opinion as healer and prosthetic contributor will matter. Around the fire, Luc Holdfast sits with his battalion, but Helena avoids sitting beside Luc because she expects Ilva Holdfast will warn her again to keep distance from the Principate for political reasons.

Helena slips into a quieter room and examines Titus Bayard, the former general whose brain Helena once reconstructed after a devastating injury. Titus remains trapped in a childlike, inactive state, and Helena feels guilty because saving Titus's life did not restore Titus's mind. Rhea Bayard, Titus's wife, gives Helena a knitted pullover in gratitude for keeping Rhea's children alive, but Rhea's continuing hope that Helena can cure Titus weighs on Helena.

When Titus becomes agitated, Rhea asks Helena to find Sebastian. Helena uses the errand as a chance to leave, but Luc intercepts Helena by the door with mulled wine and asks Helena to stay. Luc tells Helena he misses her and worries about her workload, while Helena insists she is always available when Luc needs her.

As Lila entertains the children with the legend of Orion and the Necromancer, Luc quietly admits that Luc does not want Lila cleared for combat because Lila keeps suffering injuries to protect him. Luc confesses deeper fear that Luc may not be able to win the war or live up to the divine legacy everyone expects from the last Holdfast. Helena reassures Luc that people believe in Luc because Luc is brave and kind, not because Luc has deceived them, and she argues that Luc's war is harder than the legendary wars of his ancestors.

Luc rejects Helena's near-blasphemous criticism of the gods, and Helena, unable to comfort him further, leaves. Outside, Helena looks at the Eternal Flame burning in the Alchemy Tower and fears Luc may be the last Holdfast, doomed by a war of attrition no healer, paladin, or pyromancer can end. Looking at her hands, Helena reminds herself that she promised to do anything for Luc.