The megatruck exits the River violently onto a dark gravel shuttle field at the top tier of the Ninth House. Nona is exhausted and barely aware after driving, while Pyrrha carries her out and Paul checks the situation. Kiriona identifies the place as home and leads the group into the darkness, while Pash remains with the injured Aim and the others in the truck.

As Pyrrha, Paul, Kiriona, and Nona move through the tunnels, Nona senses a worsening inner pull and a familiar, horrible presence nearby. They reach a circular chamber lit by a lantern, where Kiriona has killed several robed attackers. A dying ancient man in armor, later identified as Crux, recognizes Nona as his lady and refuses Paul’s help, while Kiriona explains that the dead are possessed “devils” previously believed confined to Antioch.

Nona warns that more enemies are outside, so the group drags Crux into a cage-like lift and descends. Crux reports that the devils arrived recently, consume or possess bodies through wounds, and have killed many Ninth House people; Kiriona says the only cure is to destroy and burn the possessed bodies. The lift reaches a lower machine-filled level, and Paul carries Crux as the group presses onward through the Anastasian defenses.

At a bone-barred barricade, Aiglamene admits the group into the Ninth House refuge. The gathered nuns, soldiers, and skeleton constructs kneel to Nona as the Sainted Reverend Daughter, horrifying Nona because they mean her rather than Kiriona. Aiglamene confronts Kiriona over her death, accepts that Nona is only in Harrowhark’s body, and agrees to consider Pyrrha’s urgent request for access to the rock and the Tomb.

Pyrrha brings the freezing Nona to a heater, where a small scratch reveals that Nona’s body has stopped healing. Paul examines Nona and determines that her body is in catastrophic failure but static, meaning her soul must be returned immediately. Crux addresses Nona as Harrowhark and urges her to remember; Nona describes a box and someone inside it, understanding that opening it will end Nona as she is.

Nona fears that returning will make her remember something unbearable and stop her from loving Paul, Camilla, Pyrrha, Hot Sauce, Noodle, and everyone else. Paul and Pyrrha reassure Nona that being loved cannot be undone, and Pyrrha finally tells Nona about the birthday present she had bought: an absurd moustache-ride T-shirt hidden at home. Comforted by that proof of love, Nona cries, insists she will remember and come back for it, and declares that she is ready to go.