Saeris goes to Kingfisher’s forge, relieved by the heat, and finds him working a crucible. Their usual antagonistic banter escalates when Saeris nearly touches the still-hot crucible; Kingfisher stops her and explains the ash-like powder inside is Fae bone, prepared for experiments.

Kingfisher reveals his goal: now that Saeris can awaken quicksilver, he wants to test whether binding quicksilver to biological material can create relics like those used for travel. Saeris agrees to try, hoping any breakthrough might also help her get home. Their work is interrupted when Saeris panics at a white palace fox near the hearth; Kingfisher nearly kills it as a “pest,” but Saeris shields it and gets bitten before it finally releases her.

Kingfisher magics the fox into a wicker cage with water and bones and tells Saeris to release it outside the palace. He also removes the restrictive gown Layne dressed Saeris in, replacing it with fitted black clothes and a thigh-strapped knife, warning her to think before using blades. Saeris pushes past the embarrassment and demands they get back to the quicksilver experiment.

After hours, Saeris manages to awaken the quicksilver again, but the test fails: when Kingfisher drops the powdered bone in, it bursts into flame and vaporizes before touching the liquid. Frustrated and exhausted, Saeris shifts tactics and asks to examine Kingfisher’s pendant up close, claiming she might sense what else was bonded into it during forging.

Kingfisher refuses to remove the pendant because he becomes dangerous without it, so Saeris touches it while he wears it, drawing them into intense proximity. Kingfisher explains Fae senses and how he can hear Saeris’s racing heartbeat, then turns the moment overtly sexual; Saeris tries to punch him, then impulsively kisses him, briefly straddling him before snapping back to her senses and retreating. Kingfisher taunts her about her “betraying” reactions, advises her to treat the fox bite, and then dematerializes into smoke, leaving Saeris rattled and without progress on the relic.