Fisher carries Saeris through a rapid chain of shadow gates until they have traveled far enough that Belikon should not be able to sense Fisher's magic. Saeris, overwhelmed by grief, stops in the snow and mourns Onyx, blaming Belikon and the cruelty of timing for the fox's death.

Fisher comforts Saeris with a belief that animals are pure beings who come to people when they are needed most. Their pause reveals that Fisher has brought Saeris to the mountain city of Ajun, but Saeris is too consumed by loss to enter. When Saeris sees the Hazrax's rune briefly glow on her hand, Saeris suspects there may still be hope.

Saeris calls out to the Hazrax, who appears angrily and insists Saeris has no right to summon it. Saeris asks whether the Hazrax can see dead spirits. After Fisher respectfully pleads for an answer, the Hazrax agrees in exchange for knowing what it feels like to lose someone beloved; Saeris describes grief as an endless, incurable absence. The Hazrax then admits that Onyx's soul is still beside Saeris, unaware that it is dead.

Because Onyx's spirit has not moved on, Saeris decides to try what the Alchemists never mastered: undoing death long enough to heal him. The Hazrax warns that this is impossible and that using the rune will shatter it, preventing Saeris from using it to free other oath-bound friends. Saeris accepts the cost, and Fisher supports her choice, declaring that Onyx is family and that Saeris has the right to spend her life as she chooses.

Saeris channels a vast amount of magic through the Hazrax's rune and forces open a boundary between life and death. The effort nearly kills Saeris, burning Saeris's hands and filling Saeris with deadly cold, but Saeris succeeds in pushing Onyx's soul back into his body. Onyx moves, yet Onyx's body remains too badly broken to survive, and Saeris realizes Saeris has exhausted all ordinary magic.

With death reaching for Onyx again, Saeris reaches beyond Saeris's runes, magic, and bond with Fisher to a deeper energy connected to the Alchimeran shield. Saeris sends that energy into Onyx, causing the world to tremble and an unnatural white dawn to break over the mountains of Ajun.