Kingfisher and Carrion return to Vorath Shah’s wrecked shop while Joshin’s venom is still poisoning them. Both are nauseated, weak, and hallucinating, but Kingfisher pushes Carrion to search for equipment because making anti-venom is their only chance of survival. They fail to find an alembic still, but a hidden distilling setup and a shallow crucible in the back of the shop give Kingfisher enough tools to begin.

As Kingfisher prepares the cure, venom-induced visions torment him. Kingfisher’s dead mother appears and accuses him of being too late and too careless, while Carrion also reacts to unseen phantoms. Kingfisher cuts his palm, adds his blood and salt to the crucible, then forces the small surviving scorpion remnant of Joshin to provide venom under threat of destruction.

The hallucinations intensify when Merelle, Renfis’s dead sister, appears burned and mutilated, embodying Kingfisher’s guilt over her death. Kingfisher recognizes that the vision is his own shame rather than Merelle’s true judgment, then infuses the blood, salt, and venom with shadow magic because magical venom requires magical anti-venom. He gives Carrion a cup, drinks his own portion, and both males immediately begin seizing as the cure takes effect.

After about an hour of conscious convulsions, Kingfisher and Carrion are alive, no longer hallucinating, and strong enough to move, though both feel terrible. Carrion helps Kingfisher up, and they leave the shop for Carrion’s home in the Third. There, Carrion finds a note from a bartender who has banned him from the Dusty Crab, then gives Kingfisher whiskey.

Kingfisher notices that the glass he is drinking from was made by Saeris. Carrion explains that Saeris once made etched glassware for Elroy and often created dangerous, incendiary designs that could not safely be sold. Seeing Saeris’s art makes Kingfisher ache for her, and Kingfisher directly asks Carrion whether Carrion is in love with Saeris.

Carrion answers honestly that he loves Saeris because of her warmth, fierceness, and loyalty, but is not in love with her because an older grief left no room for that kind of love. Kingfisher understands Carrion’s sorrow and does not challenge him. When Carrion asks Kingfisher to teach him how to shut pain away, Kingfisher refuses, warning that Kingfisher’s endurance came only through repeated suffering and that Carrion should not ask for more pain than he already carries.