Rickar reflects on how exile briefly let him grieve and reset while Tonner pushed the survivors toward rigid productivity. As Rickar, Jessyn, Campar, and Dafyd talk in their quarters, scratching at the door triggers panic: Night Drinkers have returned, and the humans arm themselves with knives and Tonner’s last poison bulbs, fearing an ambush while Else and Synnia are out on patrol.

Dafyd opens the door to find a dozen Night Drinkers prostrating themselves in apparent surrender. One steps forward, leaving a translator box and a black, wet offering that the humans realize is a severed head—proof the Night Drinkers killed one of their own to show submission. Through the translator, the Night Drinkers plead, “No more war,” and when Dafyd tries to speak with them, they retreat and flee, leaving the translator behind.

Dafyd, energized by the implications, takes the translator and insists the others follow. Rickar and Jessyn go with him while Tonner stays behind to be present when Else and Synnia return, avoiding any dangerous misunderstandings.

Dafyd leads Rickar and Jessyn across the cathedral and into adjacent corridors toward other occupied habitats. In a large chamber filled with hanging rope-like growths, a bear-sized, many-eyed alien approaches; Dafyd blocks its path and asks for help using the Night Drinker translator. The device successfully mediates communication, and the alien answers, “I can,” confirming the translator can open contact beyond their group.

The scene shifts to Jellit, a wounded human keeping watch in another enclave with Allstin, Dennia, Kell, and Llaren Morse. Hearing footsteps and a human voice without a translator, Jellit opens the door to find Jessyn—thin and shaken but alive—standing with Rickar and Dafyd, reuniting the separated humans at last.