Rune wakes weak and disoriented in a ship’s cabin, surrounded by the smell of old magic and the sea. Juniper tells Rune they are entering New Republic waters and that Rune has drifted in and out of consciousness for days after losing a dangerous amount of blood. As Rune forces herself up despite the pain, she understands that Juniper has been ordered to keep her alive because Cressida still needs Rune for the resurrection spell.

At the porthole, Rune sees a fleet of ships and recognizes Cascadia in the distance, which tells her that Cressida’s forces are moving toward open conflict with the New Republic. When Rune looks at her reflection and then her back in the mirror, she sees the full extent of the whip wounds and is horrified by the damage. Seraphine enters, and Rune immediately turns her anger on her, demanding to know why Seraphine hid the truth of her birth.

Once Juniper leaves them alone, Seraphine admits that Rune has every right to know. Seraphine reveals that Rune is the daughter of Queen Winoa and her second consort, and that Seraphine attended Rune’s birth. According to Seraphine, when she touched the newborn Rune, something awakened in her, prompting her to cast an illusion that made the midwives believe the baby was stillborn, lie to Winoa, and secretly deliver Rune to Kestrel Winters to be raised away from the Roseblood family.

Rune challenges Seraphine’s explanation, sensing that part of the truth is still missing. She points out that Seraphine has not visibly aged in decades, and Seraphine only says that she is bound to complete a task and cannot “move on,” suggesting a supernatural condition she does not fully explain. Seraphine then recounts how Queen Winoa had already grown suspicious of her opposition to the court’s cruelty, exiled her soon after Rune’s birth, and forced her to leave Rune with Kestrel for safety.

Seraphine says that after Winoa died, she returned intending to reclaim Rune, but by then Kestrel loved Rune too deeply to give her up. The two women share a brief moment of grief over Kestrel’s death, which softens Rune’s anger without resolving her doubts. Their conversation is interrupted by cannon fire, and when they look out the porthole, they see the fleet bombarding the harbor at Cascadia. As Rune watches her home come under attack, Seraphine quietly confirms that a larger war has begun.