Dianna wakes Liam late in the morning and insists that he needed the sleep after days without rest. She has burned the remaining items from Nym and bought Liam clothes, but Liam demonstrates another power by reshaping his own outfit from surrounding material. Dianna is startled by the ease of his ability, but she keeps the mood light, and Liam admits that one thing he cannot do is bring back the dead.

Dianna takes Liam to a small diner for breakfast, partly because she is hungry and partly because she has noticed he has barely eaten during their journey. Liam reluctantly eats while Dianna watches the room from a window seat for safety. A sudden chill makes Dianna suspect something supernatural nearby, but she sees only ordinary mortals, and Liam becomes watchful.

Dianna asks how the realms were sealed, and the question triggers Liam badly enough that the diner lights flicker and static cuts through the music. Liam chooses to answer anyway. He explains that the day after his coronation, Goddess Kryella summoned him to her ritual temple, where Kryella and Liam’s father revealed that they needed Liam’s blood to bind him as the realms’ guardian.

Liam says the ritual was done because Liam’s father, made paranoid by Liam’s mother’s death and prophetic visions of cosmic war, wanted a contingency plan if the gods fell. The binding meant that if Liam’s father died, Liam would become truly immortal, his life would be tied to the realms, and the realms would close to prevent wider destruction. Dianna feels anger and sympathy because Liam was given no meaningful choice in carrying the fate of worlds.

To shift the subject, Dianna admits that she got a lead from a convenience store contact about how to enter Zarall. Liam is upset because Dianna hid the information while asking him to be open with her, but Dianna argues that Liam’s terrifying reputation might have scared off the informant. She promises no more secrets starting immediately, though Liam notices her unexplained cash and clearly doubts how cleanly that promise begins.