In a clearing outside the tavern, Saeris faces a small, swirling shadow gate while Kingfisher prepares the horses, including Carrion’s unconscious body slumped over Bill. Terrified, Saeris refuses to enter, but Kingfisher orders Ren through first and reveals Saeris is bound to him by an oath. Ren is shocked and dismayed, but Kingfisher insists there is no time, and the oath forces Saeris’s body to step into the gate against her will.

The passage is violent for Saeris: disorienting darkness, then pain, flashes of color, and vomiting onto stone. In a fortress-like hall, Saeris hears Ren calmly manage startled attendants (including Orris) and request secrecy about Kingfisher’s return. Saeris watches Kingfisher walk away alone down a corridor, then collapses again, too dizzy to stand.

Ren helps Saeris up and carries her, apologizing and explaining that first-time gate travel hits humans hardest. Ren insists Kingfisher is “not what Saeris thinks,” then admits the quicksilver inside Kingfisher wears him down and that past exposure without a relic nearly destroyed Kingfisher’s mind; the silver fragment in his eye torments him, and his mother’s relic is failing. When Saeris asks where Kingfisher has been for 110 years, Ren refuses to say, and Saeris passes out before learning more.

Saeris wakes in a warm, lavish, windowless bedroom to find Carrion alive, missing a boot, and Onyx snarling at him. Furious, Saeris confronts Carrion for claiming to be Hayden. Carrion reveals Hayden is alive and hidden in the Seventh with papers, a job, a room, and extra rations; Madra is not hunting him, and the city is instead preparing for the Evenlight in a month. Carrion also reports Elroy repeatedly demands to see Saeris at the gates, but otherwise the Third has continued without bloodshed.

Saeris notices healers have treated her hands, then explains to Carrion what happened: quicksilver awakening, the binding oath, and Kingfisher’s demand for relics. Kingfisher arrives, confirming Saeris is bound and implying she saved Carrion by insisting he come. Saeris challenges Kingfisher’s control; Kingfisher claims he will not force her now and admits cooperation will go better, especially with Ren angry at him. Saeris agrees to help only after Kingfisher swears a precise, binding promise to release Saeris and Carrion back to Zilvaren once enough relics are made; satisfied he is bound, she leaves with him, while Carrion learns he was never locked in the room at all.