28.

From her hospital bed, Gwen watches birds outside as Robin admits Donna and then withdraws at Gwen’s request. Donna arrives guarded and exhausted, bristling at small talk and Allie’s avoidance. They sit, the air tense with unresolved history.

Prompted by Gwen, Donna reflects on Colin: his money, control, and logistics that muffled the moral noise of King Sorrow’s killings. She admits some victims were innocent or targeted for Colin’s interests, and bristles when Gwen mentions Arthur, deflecting blame back onto Gwen.

Gwen explains her medical paradox. After the saint’s blood, her hip and lung healed at a remarkable rate, astonishing the international doctors, but a bullet fragmented into her abdomen. A sealed rectouterine pouch trapped infection and likely repelled further healing; she is being drained and irrigated, with surgery only possible after weeks she does not have.

Accepting her limits, Gwen lays out the plan: with nine days until Easter, she will discharge the day before and meet King Sorrow behind The Briars, as Colin intended. Immediately after Easter, when the god is weakest, Donna must draw a loving spirit into steel—Van’s—and behead King Sorrow.

Donna rejects the assignment, calling Gwen a quitter and accusing her of seeking death to rejoin Arthur. She recounts choosing to save Gwen over Colin because Gwen deserved it, then rages at goodness going unrewarded. The argument erupts; Donna storms out, slamming the pneumatic door, and Robin peers in as Gwen turns away, drained.