Mische wakes crying, immediately knowing that Atroxus’s visitation was real because the burns on her body remain and she is wearing the clothes Atroxus gave her. She finds herself alone in a white-stone part of the temple, with the storm and wraiths gone, and climbs the stairs while calling for Asar.

Luce finds Mische first, newly recovered and eager, then leads Mische to Asar. Asar embraces Mische with intense relief and fear, making clear that Asar has also been shaken by what happened after the altar. When Asar notices the burned handprint on Mische’s throat, Asar becomes furious, but Mische only admits that Mische saw the past and names Saescha as a partial truth.

Mische asks whether Asar saw something too. Asar claims the Sanctum of Secrets manipulated Asar with a vision of Malach, but Mische senses that this is not the whole truth and chooses not to challenge Asar because Mische wants to preserve the time they have left together.

As Mische studies their surroundings, Mische realizes they are beneath the temple floor, looking up at the underside of the mosaics. Remembering Atroxus’s command to look beneath, Mische and Asar descend into a plainer, hidden lower passage that feels more like an unmarked tomb than a shrine. They find a smooth stone door marked with a burning bird, which Mische identifies as a firefinch and Asar calls a phoenix.

Mische uses Atroxus’s sun magic to open the door despite the painful reminder of Atroxus’s disappointment. Inside, Mische, Asar, and Luce find a cramped chamber with marble alligators around a cracked hole. When Mische and Asar look into it, they receive a vision of Alarus hiding his greatest regret: a relic meant for his wife, Nyaxia, that Alarus chose to bury instead of use.

Mische reaches into the illuminated crevice and retrieves Alarus’s secret relic, a divine golden arrow tipped with firefinch feathers. Mische and Asar understand that the weapon was made by the gods to kill a god, originally intended for Nyaxia. Mische realizes this is now the weapon Mische is meant to use to kill the god of death.