Arthur guides Linus along the upstairs hall, identifying the children’s rooms and noting Theodore’s turret nest. He explains Lucy sleeps in a converted closet attached to his room because nightmares once plagued the boy, and he is teaching gradual independence. In Arthur’s cramped office, Linus prepares to take notes, intent on a thorough report.

Arthur objects to the term for Lucy’s parentage and urges Linus to see beyond files. He describes Chauncey’s uncertain origins—part medusozoa, perhaps—and explains how being called a monster taught Chauncey to hide under beds until he learned he could be more. Chauncey now dreams of being a bellhop, a choice Arthur nurtures to let possibility replace fear.

Arthur then focuses on Sal, the newest arrival. Sal has lasted three months—his longest stay—and fears caseworkers after surviving eleven prior placements. As a Pomeranian shifter who can pass his condition by bite, he transformed a kitchen worker after being struck for taking an apple. Arthur challenges Linus’s reliance on rules and his lack of curiosity about outcomes after DICOMY’s involvement, while Linus stresses procedure and funding.

Arthur outlines the orphanage’s isolation: Ms. Chapelwhite owns the island, fetches supplies, and the nearby village accepts government stipends and implied threats to keep silent. He details Talia’s tragic loss and rarity as a female gnome, Phee’s immense power and past transformation of men into trees under Ms. Chapelwhite’s mentorship, and Theodore’s juvenile, abstract-thinking wyvern nature. On Lucy, Arthur affirms the boy’s lineage but insists he is a six-year-old worthy of protection, even slipping into calling them his children. Linus demands transparency, calling this an investigation into a potential powder keg; Arthur counters that the children have no one else.

Linus flees the office, returns to the guesthouse, and, remembering Chauncey’s habits, checks beneath his bed before retiring. Restless and conflicted, he thinks of Arthur’s calm resolve and finally lies awake, uneasy yet drawn toward what he has seen.