At dawn after Inishtar’s attack, residents release votive lanterns for the dead while satyrs prepare to throw feeder corpses from the cliffs. Saeris and Carrion stop two satyrs long enough to inspect a headless armored guardian. They find what Saeris hoped for: one of Madra’s plague bags, valuable because the sacrificial ashes inside also contain Madra’s hair. Saeris sends Carrion to deliver it quickly to Iseabail and Te Léna.

Before leaving the cliffs, Saeris sees Tal sitting near Zovena’s body. Tal explains that Fisher had been sending Tal home so Tal could die at Bayland’s End, but the battle gave Tal a chance to fight the feeders on the right side. Tal found Zovena already dead and realizes his devotion to her had not been real in the way he believed; now, after more than a thousand years without sunlight, Tal cannot bring himself to jump into darkness again.

Saeris comforts Tal and then uses quicksilver from Erromar to transform the sword Tal found during the battle into a god sword. Tal fears the weapon may not find him worthy, but the blade accepts his blood and claims him. Tal names the sword Tarsarinn, meaning redemption, and Saeris tells him that from now on, whether the gods judge them right or wrong, Tal will fight with them.

Later, after survivors leave Orellis’s house and help with Inishtar’s recovery, Saeris presses Lorreth to explain the impossible plan he had hinted at before Fisher vanished. Lorreth resists because Saeris might try it alone, so Saeris swears by cutting her hand on Selanir that she will not act without Fisher’s knowledge and help. Lorreth explains off-page; the plan is terrifying and impossible, but knowing it reassures Saeris that Fisher could not have gone to carry it out without her, leaving her with a different and still agonizing uncertainty about where Fisher is.

As Saeris and Lorreth watch gulls circling above the cliffs, armed satyrs flood the square and demand the Forgotten King. They are not seeking Fisher but Carrion, whom they identify as Rurik Daianthus’s returned heir. Instead of attacking, the satyrs kneel, offer their weapons, and sing a welcome dirge promising honor to the blood of their lost friend. Lorreth warns Carrion that publicly acknowledging the title would amount to declaring war on Belikon, so Carrion gives an awkwardly harmless greeting.

While Carrion fumbles through the political moment, Saeris sees a bird diving and finally recalls the clue that had been nagging at her. Realizing she has missed something important, Saeris concludes that she may know how to find Fisher. She refuses Lorreth’s offer to come because he cannot follow where she is going, asks him to watch Hayden, promises to return and make the relics, and runs off alone.