Saeris searches the war camp for Danya because Saeris needs to enter the dreamlike space where Saeris previously reached Fisher. Danya mocks Saeris, so Saeris draws Erromar and Selanir, disarms and throws Danya into the mud, then asks again for help. Saeris identifies Danya’s anger at Fisher as guilt over believing Belikon’s lies and leaving Fisher in Gillethrye, which weakens Danya’s resistance.

Saeris explains that Danya can help save Fisher by knocking Saeris unconscious. Danya agrees, partly because Danya has wanted to hit Saeris since they met. Saeris focuses on reaching Cahlish instead of the huntsman’s cottage, and Danya’s punch sends Saeris into the dreamscape.

Saeris wakes in a ruined, dream-version Cahlish where rot has consumed the estate. The house is decayed, the food is rotten, the fire is lifeless, and Fisher does not answer Saeris’s calls. Saeris hurries upstairs, narrowly avoids a falling chandelier, and finds Fisher’s bedroom sealed by a freezing, rot-covered door.

Saeris first tries force, then unleashes white-blue magic, but the rot absorbs the power and strengthens. Realizing brute magic will not work, Saeris remembers the Hazrax’s rune for breaking and uses it to sever the ward. The rot collapses, the door opens, and Saeris finds Fisher seated before the cold fire, soaked, pale, injured, breathing shallowly, and unresponsive.

The Hazrax appears and reveals that Saeris’s bargain allows it to observe Saeris personally, not merely the Blood Court. Saeris tries to use the Hazrax’s owed favor to bring Fisher back or reveal Fisher’s location, but the Hazrax says it cannot because of accords. Saeris then demands privacy for the rest of the year, but the Hazrax warns that Saeris desperately needs the favor for another purpose and forces Saeris to remember why Saeris came.

Saeris searches Fisher’s room for the clue Saeris remembered in Inishtar. With the Hazrax counting down, Saeris finds a ceramic kingfisher figurine and, beneath it, the folded stargazer bird that had once fallen from Edina’s library. Saeris unfolds it and recognizes it as the missing page from Edina’s journal; after reading enough to understand the next step, Saeris changes the favor and asks the Hazrax to transport Saeris to the Wicker Wood.