After Gideon impales herself, Harrow rises in shock while Gideon’s voice and presence guide her from within. Gideon urges Harrow to stop grieving long enough to protect Camilla, because Cytherea’s ancient construct is breaking free and bearing down on them.

With Gideon’s knowledge joined to Harrow’s necromancy, Harrow destroys the construct easily, recognizing it as merely bone and sending it crashing through the terrace glass into the ocean. Gideon then makes Harrow pick up Gideon’s longsword, steadying Harrow’s weak sword arm and forcing Harrow to accept that Gideon has been consumed and remade inside her.

Harrow cannot bear Gideon’s loss, but Gideon insists there is no return to what they were. Gideon tells Harrow that Gideon may be only a trauma-born hallucination of their newly joined minds, yet Gideon still knows the sword, and now Harrow does too. Together, Gideon positions Harrow’s body for combat as Cytherea watches in amazement.

Cytherea engages Harrow again, but the fight has changed. Harrow now sees Cytherea’s body and power with Lyctoral perception: the ancient Lyctor is sustained by stolen parts and is barely containing the destructive necromantic work Palamedes left inside her chest. Because Cytherea is spending so much strength holding that damage in place, Harrow can exploit it.

As Gideon’s presence fades, Gideon gives Harrow a final vow and farewell. Harrow drives Gideon’s sword through the malignant mass in Cytherea’s chest, releasing Palamedes’s hidden damage through Cytherea’s body. Cytherea’s heart finally fails after ten thousand years, and she dies in relief.

When the fight is over, Harrow drops the sword and returns to Gideon’s body. Harrow pulls Gideon off the spike, lays Gideon on her back, and sits beside her for a long time beneath the unfamiliar sky.