Disguised as two Kwen cleaning boys in Thomil’s old work clothes, Sciona and Carra enter the Main Magistry carrying copies of Sciona’s spellwork hidden under cleaning supplies. Using Thomil’s still-active janitor’s badge and Dermek’s copied keys, they pass through multiple secured gates into Archmage Orynhel’s western siphoning tower, timing the intrusion to match the ordinary cleaning schedule so no one questions their presence.

Inside the Siphoning Hall, Sciona shows Carra the enormous master spellographs that draw energy from the Reserve for Tiran’s public utilities and tells Carra plainly that these machines killed Carra’s parents. Because directly destroying the barrels would kill them both, Sciona explains a subtler plan: each active siphoning spellograph has an idle backup that activates at noon, so they can lay Sciona’s copied spellweb on top of the backup papers and let the sabotage spread through the public system when the daily switch happens. Carra quickly learns the process and begins covering the rows of machines while Sciona leaves to complete a second task.

Sciona slips into Orynhel’s hidden office above the tower, searches his files, and steals two variant drafts of the barrier expansion spell so she can later build a usable version of her own. While restoring the office, she is trapped when Orynhel enters with Archmage Gamwen and Archmage Justice Capernai. Hidden in plain sight as a cleaning boy, Sciona overhears them discuss Orynhel’s decision to use highmages for sourcing and Gamwen’s dangerous research into expanding the siphoning zone beyond the known coordinates, which would mean drawing power from still more of the other world. When Gamwen nearly trips over her, Sciona barely escapes suspicion by answering as a servant and fleeing.

Terrified that discovery will lead the archmages to Carra, Sciona runs back to the Siphoning Hall and urges an immediate retreat, only to learn that Carra has already finished laying every packet. The two girls return the cart, keep the stolen barrier drafts hidden in a bucket, and walk out of the Magistry without being stopped. Once safely away, Sciona thanks Carra, and Carra says the mission felt like the sort of thing she might have done with the mother she never knew, a remark that moves Sciona to tears.

Outside, Thomil has been waiting in fear and rushes to meet them when they emerge. During the walk to a safer train stop, Sciona praises Thomil for raising Carra without crushing her spirit, and Thomil admits his guilt that preserving Carra’s Caldonn language and fierceness may also have endangered her in Tiran. Thomil then reveals that Kaedelli left him after he refused to bring children into a world built to destroy Kwen, and that her later stillbirth was likely tied to Bringham’s toxic factory dyes. In turn, Sciona confesses that City Chair Perramis is her living father, who sent her away after her mother’s funeral. Their painful confessions deepen the tenderness between them, and beneath Feryn’s Feast lights both Sciona and Thomil briefly imagine a family that might have existed in a kinder world.