Rune and Gideon take shelter in the Wentholt family’s isolated summer home, hoping to find supplies and treat Gideon’s gunshot wounds. As Rune searches in the dark, she hears voices and discovers Bart Wentholt and another young man in a private moment. Rune pulls Gideon’s gun on them, but the stranger, Antonio Bastille, quickly explains that he has training in healing and can help Gideon.

Antonio reveals that he was once an acolyte at the Temple of the Ancients, and his reaction to Rune’s spellwork shows respect rather than fear. As Antonio prepares to treat Gideon, he makes Rune understand that Bart is also vulnerable: Bart has hidden his relationship with Antonio for years by pretending to be a shallow aristocrat. Because Rune has now seen the truth, all four of them must rely on each other’s silence and trust.

With Bart fetching supplies, Antonio removes Gideon’s bullets, cleans the wounds with alcohol, stitches him up, and stabilizes him. Afterward, Bart explains that his family fled to the Continent, but he stayed because Antonio would not leave the island. Bart and Antonio have decided that, with war closing in and hiding no longer worth the cost, they would rather spend whatever time remains living openly beside each other.

Bart’s declaration leads Gideon to argue that there should be a future beyond both Cressida’s tyranny and the Blood Guard’s authoritarian rule. Rune rejects this as fantasy, insisting that only two outcomes are possible and that both will end in death or oppression. The conversation pushes Rune into a spiral of fear tied to Cressida’s cruelty and her own past choices, and when Gideon presses her about possible witches who might resist Cressida, Rune reluctantly admits Seraphine might listen. Their argument worsens when Gideon says fear is ruling her and calls her cowardly.

Still angry and shaken, Rune goes to the rooftop gardens and admits to herself that survival, not bravery, is guiding her. Even so, guilt softens her enough to cast a Messenger spell to Seraphine, giving her their location in case Seraphine chooses to come. Later, the maid Bess settles Rune into a guest room and warns that the nearby train station may soon close because Cressida does not want people escaping. In response, Rune secretly pays Bess to buy a ticket on the train going farthest northwest, showing that although she has contacted a possible ally, she is still planning to run.