After Elias’s accusation and outburst, the group continues through Morthryn for several gray days. Asar becomes even more withdrawn, Elias barely speaks except in anger, Chandra keeps praying, and Morthryn grows colder and darker. Asar stops calling on Mische for gates or training, leaving Mische to rest, but rest only exposes Mische to increasingly vivid nightmares after Breath.

Three nights later, Mische dreams of being back in the temple among wounded, fading wraiths. Eomin appears half-eaten and cold, begging for help, and a woman’s familiar voice also pleads with Mische for light and says she followed and trusted Mische. Mische tries to summon Atroxus’s light, but the god remains silent, and the vision ends with the image of a dead firefinch crawling with maggots.

Mische wakes convinced the dream was a vision, not an ordinary nightmare. Morthryn seems to guide Mische through the halls to a damaged gate, where Mische hears Eomin and the dead calling. Believing they are trying to reach her, Mische rushes toward the gate, but Asar stops her before Mische can touch it.

Asar forces Mische to wake fully by holding Mische against the wall, making Mische look at him and breathe, and shocking Mische with frozen ivy against Mische’s cheek. Asar explains that the group is now deep in the Descent, where boundaries between worlds are weakening; because the next Sanctum is Psyche, their own minds may become as dangerous as the dead. Mische notices Asar may also have been drawn to the gate by a vision of someone from his past.

Mische then breaks down over Eomin’s absence from the recent gates and Breath, fearing Eomin has been destroyed by a souleater and left with nothingness. Asar unexpectedly insists Eomin was not eaten, though Asar refuses to explain how he knows. Mische presses Asar, reading his guarded desire to reveal more, and Asar finally offers Mische his hand and tells Mische to come with him.