Jessyn, still struggling with depression and guilt over Irinna’s death, insists on joining Campar and Rickar to recover the last piece of lab equipment left behind: the proteomic dictionary. As they walk back through the cathedral-like shared space, Campar tries to distract Jessyn with talk about how researchers hide illness until they collapse, but Jessyn’s thoughts keep circling medication, self-blame, and the fragile routines that help her function.

At the ruined alcove, Rickar takes lookout while Jessyn and Campar pry at the dictionary’s housing with makeshift crowbars. Jessyn notes the damage is less apocalyptic than her memory had made it. She also tracks where everyone else is: Tonner and Else working on the resonance scanner, Synnia refusing to help, and Dafyd gone searching for a librarian and other Anjiin groups.

Rickar suddenly spots Night Drinkers nearby, and fear spikes through the group. Campar positions himself between Jessyn and the threat, but Jessyn’s panic hardens into anger and purpose. She strides out toward the Night Drinkers despite Rickar’s attempt to stop her, feeling her self-directed hatred shift outward into a desire for retaliation.

The Night Drinkers retreat, quick and taunting, weaving through other alien bodies. Jessyn, Rickar, and Campar follow at a steady pace, tracking one as it tries to lose them. They pass a Soft Lothark that appears to be mimicking or translating Night Drinker sounds through a voice box, reinforcing that the Carryx ecosystem is observing and communicating in ways the humans only partly grasp.

The pursued Night Drinker darts into a wall riddled with small burrow holes, revealing what looks like a Night Drinker habitat full of watching eyes. Jessyn bangs her crowbar and shouts that she knows where they live, making the threat explicit before turning back. On the return, Jessyn’s brief elation collapses into familiar dread, but Campar and Rickar support her; she laughs bitterly at what counts as a “good day” now and takes a grim satisfaction in realizing something in this place was afraid of a human.