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Beacon’s engineers unveil three ascent prototypes based on Nomad’s designs; two explode, but one flies high, convincing the watching evacuees the plan might work. Nomad praises the team and corrects assumptions about “cold” at altitude, warning that heat dissipation will be the real challenge and recommending fins and heat sinks.

Logistics proceed as outer ships are stripped of sunhearts and dropped like gravestones. Contemplation updates Nomad on mounting pressure from the mountains and suggests using Nomad’s assigned ship—the reinforced Dawnchaser, once Elegy’s—for a high test. She explains Elegy’s failed attempt to ride the maelstrom to harvest sunhearts ahead of the Cinder King, a story that increases Nomad’s respect for Elegy’s ambition.

As the city contracts, Nomad and Contemplation watch Beacon disassemble itself. Nomad tells a fanciful tale from his homeland about giants who “climbed to the sun,” only to be blinded by its brilliance, a parable-like story that Contemplation contrasts with her people’s moral-heavy tales. The exchange underscores their shared longing for a peaceful life of simple stories.

Forced inward as more hulls are jettisoned, the crowd witnesses a child point out a “new star.” Nomad spots it and immediately recognizes the threat: it is not a star but a massive warship in low orbit. He reveals to Contemplation that the Night Brigade—hunters related to her people—has arrived to kill him, abruptly ending the fragile hope of an uninterrupted ascent.