As servants and Undying arrive at Spirefell, Kaine locks Helena in her room to shield her from visitors while she continues trying to reverse Morrough’s array. Stroud abruptly comes for Helena, orders her notes hidden, and forces Helena to appear pregnant by padding Helena’s dress because Stroud wants to reassure the gathered Undying that Morrough has a path to renewed power.

In the main room, Stroud presents Helena as the foreign student with rare resonance and claims Helena’s fetus will provide the materials for Morrough’s new body. The Undying mock the plan until Stroud explains that Morrough intends to transfer his soul and then offer similar new bodies to loyal followers. Aurelia demands to know the father, and when Stroud admits Kaine was selected for resonance, Aurelia tries to strike Helena with a vase. Kaine saves Helena, threatens the Undying into leaving, and rebukes Stroud for creating a domestic and political mess.

After the crowd disperses, Helena notices Ivy and Sofia Purnell among the guests. Kaine then faces Aurelia and Atreus, whose contemptuous remarks make clear that Atreus has gained new authority. Atreus insults Kaine for obeying Morrough and says Kaine’s failed tasks are now his to complete. Once Kaine gets Helena away, he admits that the search for the killer has been reassigned to Atreus and that Shiseo’s envoy will return in a little over a week.

Spirefell becomes more oppressive after Atreus and Aurelia remain there. Prisoners are brought to the estate, and Atreus tortures them in search of information about the killer; Kaine later tells Helena that none knew anything incriminating. Helena, horrified by the deaths and the screams, asks why Atreus is torturing them at Spirefell, and Kaine explains that Atreus believes spies have made the killer effective and that the estate is secure.

With Shiseo’s arrival only days away, Helena asks Kaine to take her to the library so she can look for anything she has missed. She gathers more books despite knowing that every hour spent searching may be stolen from her remaining time with Kaine. The next day, Helena tells Kaine she has worked out a possible array to restore Kaine’s soul, but it requires a willing sacrificial soul to anchor him. Helena suggests alternatives, including stealing Morrough’s phylactery first and building a nullium bomb, but Kaine points out her failing hands and exhaustion.

Kaine gently tells Helena that he is tired and wants to say goodbye before she loses herself entirely in impossible research. Helena keeps working in secret, though both know what she is doing. Later, Helena turns to Kaine physically and emotionally, insisting that their intimacy was originally theirs before others violated it. Kaine lets Helena control the pace, and Helena tries to reclaim the love and tenderness they once shared on their own terms.