When the train slows at the next rural rail yard, Gideon and Rune retrieve their clothes, jump off, and borrow two nearby horses, with Rune leaving coins behind to pay the owners. They ride through woods and along rivers to avoid the main roads as they head for the Wentholt cottage. When Wintersea comes into view, they investigate and find it seemingly deserted: the horses are gone, no guards remain, and the house has been ransacked.

Because Rune still needs the spell books she failed to steal earlier, the pair enter the damaged house. As they walk through the vandalized halls, Gideon remembers the night Kestrel Winters was taken away while he watched over Rune, and he silently regrets his part in her worst memory. Rune, however, looks ahead rather than back and says with certainty that Wintersea will one day be her home again.

While Rune gathers what she needs from her bedroom, Gideon keeps watch in the hallway. At first all seems still, but then he hears a faint metallic clanging. Realizing the sound is coming from below the house rather than outside, Gideon tells Rune to lock herself in the casting room and heads downstairs with his gun drawn to investigate.

Following the uneven clangs through the servants’ quarters and into the basement, Gideon fetches a lamp and tracks the noise to a boiler room. There he finds Laila in her red uniform, manacled to a pipe and striking it with a wrench to attract attention. Laila explains that Noah punished her for refusing to hunt Gideon and Rune down after their escape. He sent the other soldiers ahead, kept the key, and left her trapped for Cressida’s mercenaries to discover, forcing her to face either starvation or assault.

Horrified and furious at Noah’s cruelty, Gideon embraces Laila and realizes she has narrowly avoided a terrible fate. Laila confirms the other soldiers do not know what Noah did, because they believe she is merely behind them on the road. Gideon tries to figure out how to free her, but the pipes are welded and Noah took the key. Before he can solve it, Rune appears in the doorway carrying the stolen books and offers help, reminding them that she has a spell for picking locks.