Nine days after leaving San Michon, Gabriel and Dior travel down the frozen Mère River with Celene, using three monastery ponies and supplies taken from the abbey. While Celene scouts ahead, Gabriel drills Dior with wooden swords, teaching stances and vampire lore about the bloodlines Voss, Ilon, and Dyvok. Dior struggles, curses, and earns bruises, but she refuses to quit because she wants to stop being helpless after so many people died protecting her.

After training, Gabriel and Dior eat by the riverbank and share a lighter conversation about naming Dior’s pony and the value of books. Gabriel insists books are a kind of magic and a weapon of knowledge, while Dior, shaped by survival on the streets, sees them as less useful than food or theft. Their banter shows their growing affection and trust.

Gabriel reminds Dior to apply ghostbreath to mask her scent from the Dead, but Celene returns and says it will not work because vampires can smell Dior from miles away. When Dior asks what Dior smells like, Celene answers, “Heaven,” underscoring how powerfully Dior’s sacred blood draws the undead. Gabriel remains uneasy around Celene, especially because he has not seen Celene feed and does not know what Celene has been doing during her scouting absences.

The group debates their route. Gabriel suggests detouring to Aveléne for shelter and because they owe Aaron de Coste and Baptiste Sa-Ismael, but Celene insists that delay will cost lives and that the answers Dior needs lie with Master Jènoah in the Nightstone mountains. Dior, tired of being spoken about rather than addressed, chooses to continue toward Jènoah so she can learn how to end the death of days.

The trio leaves the river and rides into the deadwood, with Gabriel teaching Dior more about monsters while privately questioning Celene, Jènoah, the Faithless, and his own vampire father. Dior then spots a wounded Ossian man stumbling through the snow, firing a pistol behind him. Gabriel sees a pack of half-rotten vampires pursuing the man, bringing immediate danger to their path.