In a dream, Harrowhark Nonagesimus and John stand on a grey beach. Harrow asks what it means for a child of the Ninth to love God, and John answers with an image of people crossing dark rooms by candlelight, saying that the love of God is trusting that no one must face the darkness alone.

Harrow presses John about what comes after the end of Earth. John says he will resurrect the dead, but only some: those he wants to bring back, those he can forgive, and his loved ones. He plans to erase their memories because he believes they would otherwise torment themselves with guilt and questions. When Harrow challenges details of his account, especially about G— and the bombs, John grows defensive and insists that only one thing matters: the people who escaped are still out there, and there can be no forgiveness.

Harrow then recounts what she has seen through Alecto: John resurrected a limited number of people, taught them to live again, repopulated planets and installations, and became inseparable from the soul he consumed. She understands that Alecto feared death, while John feared many things, and that the first disciples misunderstood Lyctorhood as they tried to imitate what John had done to Alecto.

John explains his own reasoning more openly. Because he and Alecto cannot die while the other lives, he could not bear anything or anyone important to him being untouchable. He made his loved ones into extensions of himself—his hands and fingers—and sacrificed them to the Resurrection Beasts while fleeing across the universe. He frames destruction as cleansing and admits the Locked Tomb is both the death of God and his self-preservation in a box.

Harrow says she still wants to understand why Alecto was angry, where the unaccounted dead went, and what God truly is. As Reverend Daughter, Mother, and Father, Harrow declares that she must seek God for herself, whether in John or in the being inside the Tomb. John tells her God is a dream collectively dreamed by his people and by Alecto. Harrow turns from him, sees a new grey tower rising impossibly from the River, and chooses it as the place to begin her search.