Alex and Turner plan a clandestine interview at the jail but realize cameras will expose them. Dawes supplies a literal St. Elmo’s storm-in-a-teapot brew that temporarily scrambles electronics without killing the power, explaining Lethe’s stable object magic versus the societies’ high-risk rites. With the tea active, they pass security using the Manuscript mirror to mimic Lance Gressang’s attorney and enter a non-recorded attorney-client room.

Facing Turner and Alex, Lance initially postures but sits when Turner warns him the real threat is whoever killed Tara. When Alex mentions Sveta Myers, Lance admits Tara met Sveta through the greenhouses, began growing special plants, and that Kate Masters approached them to cultivate a tightly controlled “medicinal” crop. Lance confirms they sold standard weed to Blake Keely’s frat, then offloaded the new product—Merity—because it seemed to have “no buzz,” not knowing its true power.

Lance recounts that Blake later brought Colin Khatri, who sought mushrooms. Tara distilled mixtures into potent tabs using a small yellow dish from Colin—her “witch’s cauldron.” Colin repeatedly returned for more while refusing at first to reveal their purpose. Pressed, Colin eventually brought Tara and Lance to a Scroll and Key ritual space—a room with star-patterned screens and an open roof at the tomb’s table—where, after taking Tara’s tabs, the table opened into starlit void and they stepped through to mountaintops and far locales (Amazon, Morocco, Iceland, New Orleans). Lance notes intense aftereffects and odor that lingered for days and that Keys’ long-distance portals still required the tomb nexus.

Lance says Colin could not replicate Tara’s process and was irritated; nonetheless Keys relied on her tabs for functioning portals. He cannot place Tripp Helmuth. He admits he used a tab in jail to walk through a wall back to his ransacked apartment rather than to the tomb, realizing too late he could have escaped farther. Turner advises Lance to lie low as the scapegoat to stay safer inside. Lance, awed and defeated, stays silent as they leave.

On the drive back, Alex and Turner reassess suspects. The new information implicates Colin and potentially Kate, and broadens suspicion to Scroll and Key as a group, with Manuscript involved via Kate and Merity supply. They realize portals could nullify alibis like Colin’s appearance at Belbalm’s salon. Alex concedes any Manuscript member could glamor Tara, while Keys needed Tara yet may have turned on her if she pushed too hard or if someone cracked her recipe.

Back on campus, Alex spots the Bridegroom, North, near her dorm and jokes to Turner about a ghost CI; Turner laughs it off but accepts the oddity given recent events. As the new-moon rite approaches, Alex reflects that Sandow intends to call Darlington home from Black Elm, and she is torn between fear of exposure and hope that Darlington can protect them and bring justice for Tara. She acknowledges missing him and leaves North at a distance, focused on the imminent ritual.