Ferron is waiting when Helena enters the cleaned Outpost room. Without warning, Ferron attacks to test how Helena fights, moving too fast for Helena to draw a knife. Helena tries to use her satchel and the table as barriers, but Ferron overwhelms Helena, breaks or sprains both hands, pins Helena under his knee, and tells Helena that Helena is weak enough for Ferron to do anything without using resonance. Helena refuses to struggle further, protecting Helena’s hands because they are essential to Helena’s work.

After Ferron releases Helena, Helena asks why Ferron attacked, but Ferron says Helena’s existence is reason enough and admits there is no information that day. Helena hides the visible signs of assault by crawling through the marsh before returning to Headquarters. Matron Pace treats Helena, sees bruising around Helena’s throat, and receives orders sending Helena to Helena’s room before the injuries can be widely noticed.

Crowther meets Helena and Pace, arranges for Ivy, a very young vivimancer, to heal Helena’s left hand, and dismisses Pace despite Pace’s obvious anger. Pace warns Helena that Helena keeps sacrificing herself and asks what Helena has ever refused, implying Crowther exploits Helena’s inability to say no. After Ivy repairs the worst injury, Crowther questions whether Helena exposed vivimancy to Ferron, then establishes a stocked drop location where Helena should go if injured again. Alone afterward, Helena revisits memories of Helena’s father, Luc, and the suncrest amulet; though tempted to discard it, Helena keeps it because it represents Luc rather than Ilva’s manipulation.

When Helena returns to the Outpost the next week, Ferron says Ferron will not repeat the attack and admits Ferron did not mean to hurt Helena, though Helena no longer trusts Ferron’s boundaries. Ferron criticizes Helena’s lack of combat fitness and orders callisthenics, arguing Helena needs conditioning before any self-defense training. Ferron also gives Helena intelligence and, after asking about food shortages, says one transport route likely carries food supplies that Crowther should use to improve Helena’s rations if the Resistance captures it.

A later section shifts to the hospital and laboratory work. A Resistance scouting team brings in a nearly dead chimaera corpse, and Helena dissects it because its construction depends on vivimancy. Helena determines it was alive when made, not necromantically reanimated, and finds extensive vivisection, organ replacement, and altered anatomy. While Shiseo assists, Helena realizes Shiseo lacks his own workspace and offers use of Helena’s unofficial laboratory; after Helena admits the lab is effectively stolen, Shiseo cautiously shows interest.

Over the following weeks, Ferron’s appearances become irregular: sometimes Helena receives envelopes, sometimes nothing, and sometimes Helena is summoned only to find Ferron gone. Crowther appears to be losing confidence in Helena’s usefulness. Eventually Ferron returns with major intelligence: the High Necromancer will secretly travel to Hevgoss with nearly a third of the Undying, creating the best opening the Resistance has had. Ferron implies Ferron will also be going and ends by saying they should skip the next few weeks because Ferron does not expect to survive.