On the third floor of the house, Rune is still furious after Gideon’s earlier confession that Cressida cursed him so touching Rune causes pain. When Gideon asks whether that impossibility upsets her, Rune refuses to admit what she feels and insists they could never be together anyway because he is a witch hunter. Their tense conversation ends when they hear a child crying and rush to the last room, where they find Meadow in the arms of a nursemaid.

The nursemaid refuses to surrender Meadow without her mistress’s permission, and Rune realizes the child has effectively been taken from her witch mother under the post-revolution practice of placing such children with non-witch guardians. Angry and pressed for time, Rune pulls a gun and abandons subtlety, declaring that Meadow belongs with her mother. Gideon takes the child, but as soon as Rune and Gideon reach the hall, the nursemaid raises the alarm and guards begin converging on them.

Rune and Gideon flee through the servants’ stairs into the basement and then into a large dining room, but guards cut off both exits before they can escape. Gunfire erupts from both sides. Protected by Witch’s Armor, Rune is struck but unharmed, and Gideon flips tables to create cover before pulling Rune and Meadow down behind them. Trapped under heavy fire, Rune tries to think of a spell while Gideon shields both her and the child with his body and calmly promises Meadow that he will get her back to her mother.

As Gideon comforts Meadow, Rune suddenly experiences a vivid vision of an older Gideon joyfully playing with three children who seem to be his own. The image makes Rune confront what a life with him would mean: a witch and a witch hunter, and any children they had, would be hunted relentlessly. Gideon notices something change in Rune’s eyes and asks whether she has Seen something, but the moment is broken when a bullet grazes his shoulder. Edmund appears behind Gideon with a gun, and Rune shoots Edmund in the leg before driving him back.

Realizing they cannot all escape together, Gideon orders Rune to use Ghost Walker to turn herself and Meadow invisible while he stays behind and keeps the guards focused on him. Rune resists leaving him, but Gideon insists, gives her the key to his tenement, and prepares to hold the room alone. After making the blood marks for the spell on Meadow and herself, Rune embraces him and extracts only a promise that he will stay alive.

Once the spell takes effect, Gideon stands and opens fire with both guns, drawing every eye in the dining room. Using that distraction, Rune slips to a window with Meadow, climbs out into the gardens, and passes unseen through the alerted guards at the front gate. She reaches the harbor, mounts Gideon’s horse Comrade with Meadow, and rides away toward Old Town, leaving with the rescued child but with her heart still fixed on Gideon in the house behind her.