Alaric and Talasyn engage in a dramatic aerial chase over the Nenavarene jungle, each piloting stolen Dominion coracles equipped with advanced aether-based cannons. Alaric discovers the coracle's impressive capabilities while dodging Talasyn's relentless attacks. He taunts her over the transceiver, asking about the mysterious barrier their combined magic created, but she refuses to discuss it. After a near-collision in which Talasyn refuses to give way, Alaric swerves and climbs into the sky, parting with the taunt "See you at home." Talasyn does not pursue, recognizing they are still in hostile Dominion territory.

Alaric reflects on how he escaped his cell: he overpowered a young guard, used the guard's aether weapon to destroy the sariman bird's cage (freeing it accidentally), and fought his way out of the garrison once the Shadowgate reopened. He considers the implications of Nenavar's advanced aethermancy, lightweight coracles, and magic-blocking creatures, recognizing the Dominion as a serious future threat to the Night Empire. He decides to bring the stolen coracle back to Kesath as valuable technology and to report to his father about how his and Talasyn's magic combined.

Talasyn lands on a riverbank, frustrated at letting Alaric escape. She hikes through the jungle back toward her wasp, hiding from Nenavarene search patrols. She wrestles with fear and uncertainty about Elagbi's claim that she is his daughter Alunsina, the Lachis'ka. She recalls the warning "If they find out, you will be hunted" and questions why the Nenavarene who brought her to Sardovia chose Hornbill's Head instead of her mother's homeland. She finds Alaric's abandoned wolf coracle and kicks it in frustration, deliberately leaving it as evidence of the Night Empire's trespass. She then reaches her wasp and resolves to return to Sardovia, vowing silently to come back to Nenavar someday.

After a two-day journey, Talasyn arrives at the Sardovian Wildermarch to find the base in an uproar—Kesathese ironclads are massing on the border and Coxswain Darius has vanished. Talasyn immediately identifies Darius as the traitor. She tells her friend Khaede everything: the failed communion, the traitor, Alaric's presence, the combined magic, and her possible identity as a Nenavarene princess. Khaede reacts with shock and excitement, loudly announcing the news as they enter Amirante Vela's office.

Vela listens with composure, absorbing Talasyn's full debrief. She notes that the Enchanters should investigate how Talasyn's and Alaric's magic combined and speculates that aetherspace's connection to the time dimension may explain Talasyn's recovered memories near the nexus point. Khaede suggests Nenavar should now help Sardovia, but Vela cautions that the Zahiya-lachis makes decisions, not Elagbi, and that Sardovia's recent actions in Dominion territory may have damaged any chance of alliance. Vela orders that the imminent Kesathese attack must take priority over everything, including Talasyn's questions about her identity and the distant Dawn Isles. Talasyn suppresses her longing for answers, recognizing Vela's exhaustion and the weight of Darius's betrayal, and silently accepts her orders.