Mische reels after Atroxus tells her that she must kill Alarus. She cannot imagine herself, a former priestess and scholar, doing what no mortal has ever done, but Atroxus explains that Alarus will be vulnerable immediately after resurrection, with flesh and heart weakened to near-mortal softness.

Atroxus clarifies the mission’s mechanics: Asar must pass through the five Sanctums of the Descent and recover one relic from each, all placed there by Alarus before death. Atroxus could not alter Alarus’s magic, but he locked the relics behind the magic of the sun, which is why Asar needs followers of Atroxus. Atroxus also says Mische will find a weapon in the Descent capable of piercing a god’s flesh, but warns her to keep the truth hidden from Asar because Shadow-born power makes thought itself vulnerable.

Mische’s fear nearly drives her to say she cannot do it, but her devotion to Atroxus and the memory of her offering day force her to stand. She recalls being chosen at sixteen, promising Atroxus her body, love, loyalty, life, death, and soul, while still doubting why he chose her instead of her sister Saescha.

When Mische asks why Atroxus would trust her after she failed him in Obitraes, Atroxus names her failure plainly. Mische remembers the deaths and ruin that haunt her, including her sister’s body, but Atroxus tells her that gods can smell fate, and that her soul still carries the scent of revelation beneath the rot of vampirism. He frames her mission as the unfinished purpose of her entire life and asks whether she wants redemption.

Mische realizes that her own redemption matters less to her than giving meaning to the deaths of those who followed her and protecting her friends from a war between gods. She accepts the task, not because it feels like a choice, but because she wants the mission and its sacrifices to matter. As the dream dissolves, Atroxus tells her to speak of this to no one, and Mische kneels, promises not to fail, and kisses his fading hand.