Saeris works alone in Ammontraíeth’s fireless forge, using evenlight instead of flame to make another quicksilver relic. The quicksilver speaks to her as she tries to connect with it, and Saeris recognizes that simply forcing it to obey is not the partnership Foley warned she must form.

Saeris places an engraved silver ring into the crucible and asks the quicksilver to bind with it. The quicksilver demands a memory in exchange. Saeris nearly sacrifices the memory of her mother’s murder, then stops because the trauma still defines part of who she is. Instead, Saeris offers another memory involving Hayden at the Mirage, but once the exchange is complete, Saeris cannot remember what she has lost. Saeris seals the relic with blood, unsettled that her blood hisses against the crucible.

The Hazrax appears unexpectedly in the forge and questions Saeris about the relic, her changed nature, and her reliance on blood and bargains. The Hazrax reveals that trading memories, blood, songs, and other pieces of herself to make thousands of relics will hollow Saeris out. The Hazrax also points toward the larger crises around her: Fisher’s danger, Saeris’s unsealed runes, the need to evacuate the vulnerable, and the rapidly spreading black rot, whose latest toll has reached 1,976 dead, 2,409 infected, and 8,162 hectares lost.

When Saeris presses for answers about mastering the quicksilver rune, the Hazrax refuses to reveal truths directly. Instead, it pushes Saeris toward realizing that she must activate and seal her quicksilver rune rather than keep relying on individual bargains. The Hazrax identifies Saeris’s runes as an extraordinary shield and warns they may kill her before she can seal them.

The Hazrax then discloses its real purpose: it had a standing arrangement with Malcolm, allowing it to remain in the Blood Court as an observer in exchange for one favor per year. Demonstrating terrifying power by suspending objects and briefly lifting Saeris from the floor, the Hazrax demands a similar bargain from Saeris. Saeris agrees, but only with yearly renewal, trusting her instinct not to bind herself permanently to the ancient being.

After the Hazrax leaves, the finished relic drops into Saeris’s hand. Contact with it triggers blinding pain and destroys the internal wall Saeris has used to contain her magic. With nothing holding her power back, Saeris realizes she may destroy Ammontraíeth or die before seeing Fisher again, and her only coherent command to herself is to run.