Three weeks after Libby's abduction, with no results from the search, the five remaining Society candidates settle into their next phase of study. Parisa has accepted that she can no longer sense any trace of Libby's consciousness, and she concludes pragmatically that whether Libby is alive or dead is moot—what matters is that the Society's enemies are powerful enough to erase someone, making the Society's resources all the more worth claiming. Tristan has gone quiet and stopped speaking about his belief that Libby is alive.

Dalton introduces their new subject of study through the case of Viviana Absalon, a recently deceased woman from southern France who was misclassified as a mortal. Viviana's internal organs stopped aging at twenty-one, her skin never lost elasticity, and her hair never greyed, yet she never recognized herself as extraordinary. She died in a car accident at forty-five, and the Society's autopsy reveals she would not have died of natural causes. Dalton poses the research question: is longevity a rare magical trait, and do people with it tend to die young by external causes—possibly suggesting fate? Atlas quietly observes the session, and when Parisa presses about what the candidates owe in their final year, Atlas cryptically states they are beholden to the Society as it is to them.

After the lecture, Parisa finds Dalton alone in the reading room, visibly strained. Dalton reveals why Atlas chose Parisa specifically: because she knows how to starve—how to conserve and survive when others perish, embodying the magic of longevity. Parisa deduces that Atlas chose each candidate for a particular reason, and she suspects Atlas no longer fully has Dalton as his telepath, raising the question of why he needs her as a replacement.

The conversation shifts to the night of Libby's apparent death. Dalton confirms the body they saw was not an illusion but an "animation"—a term that carries enormous weight for him. He confesses that only one person could have created an animation that convincing: himself. Dalton does not remember making it, and his fractured mental state becomes evident. Parisa feels triumph rather than dread at this revelation, recognizing Dalton as someone far more powerful and mysterious than anyone else perceives. She silently resolves to piece him back together, taking his broken fragments for herself, and whispers a promise to get him out.