The chapter opens with a time-lapse of contented years together. Sabine supports Charlotte’s artistic impulses with gifts—journals, charcoals, canvas—and watches Charlotte paint, acting as a constant, attentive presence. Sabine’s charm in public contrasts with a quick temper and rare laughter, and her regard still feels luminous to Charlotte.

Amid their adventures—sneaking through gardens and museums, dancing through rooms—darker undertones appear. Sabine often fingers tokens at her neck, seeming to relive hunts and kills, and sometimes sleeps so deeply she appears dead, unsettling Charlotte. In passion, Sabine occasionally bites too deep, leaving Charlotte weakened; once she restrains Charlotte hard enough to leave wrist bruises. To make amends, Sabine tells a story from her life before, revealing the name María, which Charlotte later uses; Sabine’s black look frightens Charlotte and makes her waver, but Sabine soothes her with promises that nothing bad will happen if they stay together.

The scene shifts to Paris in 1914 as World War I erupts. Charlotte is overwhelmed by the scale of suffering, feeling it regardless of where they go. She cries in her sleep, while Sabine grows impatient. A visit to a printer’s shop confronts Charlotte with grim headlines and death tallies, which she carries back to their pied-à-terre on the Seine.

On the balcony, Charlotte finds Sabine apparently untouched by the surrounding despair. Charlotte expresses a desire to help the war effort, but Sabine mocks her, asking whether Charlotte or Germany has killed more Englishmen and sneering at the idea of her joining as a medic. The exchange escalates as Sabine accuses Charlotte of clinging to suffering to feel human, declaring that the human part of Charlotte is dead.

The harsh words stun Charlotte into silence. Sabine then softens, saying that while others’ pain does not affect her, Charlotte’s pain does. She embraces Charlotte, affirming that she loves Charlotte’s heart but hates to see useless suffering. Charlotte laments the darkness of the world and asks what they can do; Sabine lifts her chin and answers that they can live, closing the dispute with a decisive rejection of intervention.