Dianna has been unconscious for at least a day after Liam’s capture of her, and Vincent wonders whether she might be dead. Liam knows she is alive because he can still sense her power from several floors above, though the feeling makes him ill. While Logan cuts away the burned remains of Liam’s hair, Liam, Vincent, Logan, and Neverra discuss Dianna’s unusual abilities: regeneration, darkness manipulation, shapeshifting, and a beast form resembling legends of the Four Kings of Yejedin.

Vincent’s mention of Liam’s old work as a bestiary scribe triggers a memory from Liam’s childhood on Rashearim. As a young Samkiel, Liam sits in a garden with his mother, Adelphia, practicing drawing creatures instead of fighting. Adelphia teaches Samkiel that something beautiful can be deadly, using a toxic flower as an example, and warns that appearances can deceive.

Liam’s father arrives from battle and praises Samkiel’s drawing, but when Adelphia repeats the lesson about deceptive appearances, Liam’s father counters that a monster remains a monster no matter how pretty it looks. The memory underscores the conflicting lessons that shaped Liam: Adelphia’s more nuanced view of danger and Liam’s father’s harsher certainty.

Liam returns to the present when Logan finishes cutting his hair. The new short hair and trimmed beard make Liam feel less like either parent, and he briefly recognizes the change as necessary. Logan, Neverra, and Vincent joke about the past, and Liam longs to feel joy and connection again, but the feeling overwhelms him.

Liam abruptly shuts down the warmth in the room and orders the others to prepare for Dianna’s interrogation. He blames himself for every death and failure under his reign, including not detecting Dianna’s allies sooner. Liam gives Neverra his notes and sketch for the bestiary, repeats his father’s belief that monsters remain monsters, and privately fears he has become like his father. Staring at his reflection, Liam concludes that no outward change can alter the truth he believes about himself: he is Samkiel, the cause of his father’s death and Rashearim’s fall, the World Ender.