After Libby's disappearance, the Alexandrian Society mobilizes an enormous search effort, contacting foreign governments, summoning advanced magical trackers, and deploying their own specialized task force. Nico volunteers to help, arguing that no one knows Libby's magical signature better than he does, and Atlas permits it. Despite all efforts, no trace of Libby is found—her magical output has been completely wiped. Tristan, though he was the first to insist Libby was alive, offers little assistance and does not speak to Nico about the loss.

Nico has been spending much of his rest time communicating with Gideon through dreams, a secret he has kept all year. The strain of overusing his magic while maintaining conscious awareness during sleep is taking a visible toll. Eventually, Nico confesses Gideon's existence and dream-travel ability to Reina, who reacts with characteristic indifference. Nico asks Gideon whether his mother Eilif—a mermaid creature with ties to other magical organizations—could be responsible for Libby's abduction, but Gideon firmly denies it.

Gideon reveals that he made a deal with his mother Eilif: in exchange for information about Nico's whereabouts and activities within the Society, Gideon agreed to do a job for her—breaking someone out of their own conscious mind. Gideon insists he will find another way to fulfill the bargain rather than actually complete the task, but he is deeply worried about Nico's safety. He warns Nico that the Society is not as secret as it should be, may be corporately funded, and that Nico is not as safe as he believes.

Gideon then demonstrates something extraordinary: he reaches through the dream space and touches Nico's cheek with a spectral, memory-based contact, proving that the wards protecting the Society have a vulnerability they haven't considered—time. Gideon suggests that Libby may have been displaced to another point in time rather than another location. Nico initially protests that the energy required to break a time ward would be impossible, but Gideon counters that it could be the work of someone with a very specific, niche ability rather than overwhelming raw power.

Exhausted and emotionally overwhelmed, Nico asks Gideon to help him find Libby. Gideon promises he will. The chapter ends with Nico drifting into sleep, comforted by memories of his deep bond with Gideon—a bond rooted in Nico's refusal to abandon Gideon despite Gideon's sense that his own life is limited by a "ticking clock."