Rune travels aboard Alex’s boat with Aurelia and Meadow, licking salt from her lips as the sails fill above them. To keep the small craft from being caught, Rune maintains a Ghost Walker spell to hide it and casts Tempest, an elemental spell from Seraphine’s teachings, to summon a favorable wind and drive them faster toward open sea.

Because the wind had first been against them, Rune expects at any moment to see a larger ship give chase, with Gideon at its stern ordering her capture. No pursuit appears. Aurelia never looks back at the island, instead sitting in the cold night air with Meadow in her arms, and Rune gives them Gideon’s jacket so Aurelia can wrap the child in it.

As the island shrinks behind them and the immediate fear of capture eases, Rune runs her hands over the polished wood of the Aria and thinks of Alex, recognizing that he is saving her again even after death. She silently thanks him and watches the stars, then glances back one last time as they leave New Republic waters and her home disappears for good.

Once the escape feels real, Rune begins planning what comes next. She decides that if she reaches the Continent, she will find Seraphine, tell her she is running away, and try to disappear somewhere neither Cressida nor the republic’s witch hunters can reach her. Yet freedom does not bring relief: memories of Gideon intrude, and instead of triumph Rune feels a painful emptiness as they sail on.