In a freezing thunderstorm, Saeris Fane sprints with Renfis and Kingfisher along the western line of the war camp to a narrow bottleneck on the Darn, where the ice is thinner because a stronger current runs beneath it. Feeders mass on the Sanasroth side, wary of the running water they can sense, while Yvelian warriors further downriver hammer the ice to break the crossing. Kingfisher notes Malcolm is not present, deepening the unease.

As the first feeders step onto the ice, Renfis and Kingfisher hold until the border is breached, explaining the war’s rules: Fae cannot use magic offensively until an enemy crosses, and their power fails on dead Sanasrothian soil. The moment a vampire stumbles past the midpoint, Kingfisher’s black wind strips it while Renfis launches a bright orb that detonates across the river, shattering the ice bank to bank and dumping the remaining feeders into the current. The camp cheers, believing the crossing stopped.

The victory collapses into panic when something crawls from the river on the Yvelian shore: the feeders are breaching by being swept through the water and clawing out alive. Kingfisher races off to respond elsewhere, ordering Saeris to stay put, while Renfis prepares to hold the bank with steel. Saeris realizes Solace is awake and communicating, then joins Renfis as the first wave charges up the bank.

Renfis cuts down several feeders, but the numbers swell beyond what went onto the ice, forcing him to use detonating light-orbs to burn bodies that still push forward. When Renfis orders Saeris to run for Lorreth, Saeris refuses, arguing staying with Renfis gives better odds than fleeing alone, and fights with Solace. Saeris learns she must take all of a feeder’s head to stop it; she steadies into trained focus and begins killing at the water’s edge, carving emerging feeders before they can fully rise. In a slowed, eerie calm, Saeris executes a precise decapitation that shocks Renfis.

Kingfisher returns in a sweep of smoke, briefly yanking Saeris to safety, then joins Renfis with Nimerelle and turns the fight into a brutal rout. Across the bank, Lorreth unleashes brilliant white power—Avisie9th’s “angel’s breath”—igniting enemies across the battlefield and turning Malcolm’s army to ash. The camp erupts into a chanting celebration of “Lorreth of The Darn,” but the moment is cut short when Everlayne appears on the far side of the river in a red dress, shrieking for Kingfisher while standing beside at least a hundred vampires.