In July 1854, Addie returns to Villon-sur-Sarthe expecting the village of her childhood to be unchanged, but she finds expanded roads, cleared woods, and unfamiliar paths. Reaching her former home, Addie discovers strangers living there: a family with two blond boys playing in the yard beneath the old yew tree.

The younger boy approaches and asks if Addie is lost. Unable to tell the truth and half-amused by the impossibility of being known, Addie claims she is a ghost, has him close his eyes to “prove” it, and slips away before he can look again.

Addie goes to the cemetery, where the tree she once transplanted now towers over Estele’s grave. Sitting in its shade, Addie speaks aloud as if Estele can hear, recounting the years since her last visit and the ways the world has changed. In Addie’s mind, Estele’s counsel returns: everything changes, and Addie realizes even her remembered voice has grown brittle with time.

Near the woods, Addie finds what remains of Estele’s old home: the hut is collapsing and being reclaimed by the forest. The older boy is there among the ruins; when he challenges her, Addie calls herself a witch and frightens him away with talk of bones and burial. Addie considers staying to become a “witch by the woods,” but when she tries to stack stones to rebuild, the curse undoes her work—the pile collapses back into its original state.

Drawn into the forest where her bargain began, Addie senses darkness gathering beneath the trees. Luc appears and mocks her return as a circular “pilgrimage,” then presses closer and asks, almost gently, whether she is tired. Luc offers her rest—death beside Estele—but Addie refuses, choosing the world’s beauty over surrender, and tells Luc she is “just waking up.” Luc’s eyes flash an unfamiliar green—an amusement she does not yet understand—before he kisses her cheek, murmurs “Even rocks,” and vanishes.