Waiting on Gideon’s rooftop, Rune watches Old Town and reflects on class, identity, and whether anything in a person stays constant beneath circumstance. Hungry and unsure who she truly is, she is startled when Gideon climbs up in his Blood Guard uniform, apparently released and unharmed.

Gideon gives Rune a stolen Blood Guard uniform and asks for her help. He explains that the sibyl, Aurelia Kantor, has a young daughter named Meadow, and that the Blood Guard has been holding Meadow to force Aurelia to talk. Aurelia now refuses to leave prison unless Meadow is freed first, so Gideon wants Rune’s help breaking the child out. Despite her alarm at a child being used as leverage, Rune is excited by being needed and agrees.

Before scouting the target, Gideon buys food from a street vendor, and Rune eats ravenously. They retrieve Gideon’s horse, Comrade, and ride to the wealthy eastern waterfront, where Rune disguises herself with illusion magic because she knows the area from her old life. While Gideon ties up the horse, Rune studies the harbor and is shaken to find Alex’s sailboat, Dawn’s Aria, still there. Since Gideon now knows about her plan involving the Arcadia, Rune immediately begins considering the sailboat as a possible new escape route.

Gideon returns with two ice creams, and the unexpected kindness sharpens Rune’s confusion about him. When Rune asks about the sailboat, Gideon admits it was Alex’s and says he has kept it because he could not bear to part with it. Rune impulsively offers to teach him to sail, then tries to retreat from the intimacy of the moment. To shift the conversation, she jokes about whether this is his usual courtship routine, and Gideon instead tells her he comes here when he misses his family, sharing a memory of their first ice cream outing and what each family member liked.

As they walk the promenade, the conversation and the setting soften them toward each other. Gideon notices chocolate on Rune’s face and wipes it away with his thumb; Rune takes his thumb into her mouth to clean it, and the charged moment reminds both of their earlier attraction. Rune breaks the tension by forcing the conversation back to the mission.

Gideon points out the yellow waterfront house where Meadow is being held. Rune studies the property and notes the locked gate, the ivy-covered iron fence, and at least four guards in the back garden, realizing the approach is heavily constrained and that two guns would not be enough if the job turns violent. Already thinking tactically, Rune turns away from the house and tells Gideon she will need his jacket, signaling the start of her plan.