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Nomad triggers the emergency release to unseal Beacon’s compartments, preventing suffocation among unconscious survivors. He confirms Elegy still lives and checks the ghost containment, fearing a breach after the crash; the enclosure is intact. Casualties are bumps, breaks, and a few blackouts, but no deaths.

Leaders and engineers convene by the Chorus enclosure. Solemnity Divine reports multiple locked engines, clogged jets, damaged intakes, and broken mounts; ships can be repaired, but Beacon’s sunhearts are nearly depleted. Navigators estimate roughly two and a half hours of protective mountain shadow before they must move.

They debate options. Zeal proposes a fast raid to steal sunhearts, possibly using a stolen Union scout to mask identity, but Confidence and Contemplation argue there’s no time and the Cinder King will be vigilant after recent raids. Discussion clarifies the world’s cycle: the great maelstrom ravages newly nighted lands, then shadow follows, and the Cinder King harvests sunhearts along that boundary.

Nomad counters with a bolder plan: use Elegy’s reinforced Dawnchaser to enter the great maelstrom ahead of the Cinder King and seize sunhearts directly from the ground before collection. Despite shock and warnings that no one survives the maelstrom, Zeal commits, and the group leans toward this high-risk, time-critical gambit.