Sciona begins by visiting the Berald bakery to buy Thomil’s favorite scones, then bluntly asks Ansel Berald why his brother Carseth killed himself. Ansel explains that Carseth returned from six months as a barrier guard traumatized by what he had seen: Kwen refugees arriving mutilated, camps refusing the overflow, and guards ordered to throw the injured back outside the barrier. From Carseth’s nightmares and breakdown, Sciona gains confirmation that people forced back beyond the barrier were being left to die in the Reserve siphoning zone.

Sciona then travels into the Kwen Quarter and goes to Thomil’s apartment. Thomil tries to shut her out because of the cruel things Sciona said during their last argument, but Sciona forces the conversation by admitting that Thomil was right. After accidentally injuring her when he closes the door, Thomil lets Sciona inside, cleans her wound, and listens while she explains everything she has confirmed: the Forbidden Coordinates align with Tiran, the Reserve lies just beyond the barrier, and her test proved that siphoning takes life from human beings. Thomil is devastated, especially because it confirms that the crossing where he lost his people was inside the siphoning zone, but he makes Sciona continue.

The conversation is interrupted when Carra returns. Sciona learns that Carra is not Thomil’s daughter but his niece, and Thomil reveals that he falsely registered himself as Carra’s father so the authorities would not separate them after the crossing killed the rest of their tribe. Carra overhears enough to attack Sciona with a knife, furious that a highmage benefited from mass killing. Thomil restrains Carra and protects Sciona, but he also refuses Sciona’s attempts at apology, telling her that her guilt does nothing for the people who suffered. Even so, Thomil asks the more important question: whether Sciona will use what she knows to change anything.

Sciona proposes taking her findings to the High Magistry. She believes her Freynan Mirror can expose which energy sources are human and help mages and alchemists stop killing people. Thomil challenges that hope, arguing that the oppression of the Kwen is not an accident of ignorance but part of a larger system the highmages benefit from. Their argument widens from siphoning to labor, poverty, racism, and the possibility that earlier mages already knew the truth, including Sabernyn, who likely used the Forbidden Coordinates to murder people in Tiran. Sciona insists that the archmages, especially Archmage Bringham, cannot knowingly support mass slaughter and resolves to prove it.

Before Sciona leaves for the university, Thomil makes her swear that if Bringham already knows, she will pretend to accept his explanation and avoid provoking him. Thomil is visibly afraid that the archmages may already understand far more than Sciona believes and may kill her if she presses too hard. After Sciona departs, Thomil finds Carra on the roof and warns her that her open defiance will get her killed in Tiran. Carra accuses him of trusting a mage, but Thomil admits that, despite everything, he sees Sciona as hope because she has shown she can change her mind and might have the power to change the world.