Helena dreams or remembers sitting in a laboratory with Shiseo, who grades her transmuted metals and praises her unusual skill, especially with titanium. When Helena admits she never knew what she wanted because others expected so much of her, Shiseo suggests that steel would not suit her and advises nickel-titanium alloy if she ever wanted a weapon, though Helena insists her work is only curiosity.

Helena wakes in her room with soreness on the right side of her body and realizes she must have had another seizure after telling Ferron her deductions about Morrough. Her body has been treated, implying someone manually worked the muscles after vivimancy, which disturbs her. She showers and reflects on the recovered memory of Shiseo, now unsettled by the fact that he once lived among or worked with the Resistance yet is trusted by the Undying as an envoy.

As Helena considers Paladia's former openness to foreign alchemists and its later suspicion during the war, she remembers that her father wanted to leave after Principate Apollo's death. Helena had already promised Luc she would stay, so her father stayed with her and died because of that choice. The thought deepens Helena's guilt.

After the shower, Helena studies her reflection and is shaken by how much she has changed at Spirefell. Improved food and care have made her look healthy and even pretty, but Helena sees that the fire in her eyes is gone. She feels like a living corpse, barely different from the necrothralls around her.

A day later, Ferron returns while Helena is eating dinner, dressed in clean hunting clothes. Helena notices the metallic sheen of woven body armour beneath his clothes and realizes this is why she could not stab him. Ferron asks how Helena realized Morrough was dying and using the Undying as a power source.

Helena explains that the war's supposed inevitability never satisfied her because no one asked what Morrough gained from conquering Paladia. She reasons that immortality would not be given away unless it benefited Morrough more than those who received it, and that such a gift must have a hidden cost. Ferron offers confirmation only if Helena admits what became too good to be true for her; Helena answers, “Paladia.” Ferron then confirms that Morrough is dying.