Saeris wakes to Kingfisher screaming in terror and pain somewhere in the apartment. She rushes toward the sound, following Onyx, and finds Kingfisher half-dressed on a too-small bed, rigid and sweating with his eyes open, as if trapped in a waking nightmare.

Kingfisher orders Saeris to leave and insists the episode will pass in an hour or two, but the pain surges again, making him arch and curse in Old Fae. When Saeris threatens to fetch help, Kingfisher begs her not to, only asking for water; Saeris navigates the dark apartment by moonlight, fills a glass, and returns to find Onyx pressed to Kingfisher’s side.

Because Kingfisher cannot move, Saeris props Kingfisher against her and helps him drink. She sees quicksilver pulsing across Kingfisher’s right eye and hears the relentless refrain of “Annorath mor!” in her mind, linking the episode to quicksilver. When Kingfisher hints he could use their oath to force Saeris away, Saeris furiously draws a boundary and makes Kingfisher promise never to compel her again; Kingfisher agrees, and Saeris stays through four brutal hours of shaking and delirium.

During a calmer stretch, Kingfisher asks Saeris to talk about her life before, to distract him. Saeris tells him the “real” truth: her father died when she was two; her mother, Iris, became a prostitute to survive and later smuggled scrap and weapons, aided by Elroy the smith and rebels who taught Saeris to steal, fight, move through tunnels, and siphon water from Madra’s hidden reserves while Saeris cared for Hayden.

Saeris recounts how Iris was executed by guardians for carrying knives, then humiliated as she died; afterward the ward was quarantined under the claim of plague. Saeris explains she and Hayden could not stay with Elroy without endangering him, so they disappeared into attic hideouts and survived on Saeris’s skills. When the episode finally eases, Kingfisher pulls Saeris into his arms to sleep; he quietly confesses his own mother was killed too, then falls asleep beside her.