An unnamed child keeps watch beside a makeshift hatching hut in the snow and sees the largest Moonplume the child has ever known swooping overhead and screeching. Because the creature is metallic silver like the egg and has a long, sleek tail tip like Mahmi's female Moonplume, Nathae, the child concludes that this Moonplume is a mother searching for her stolen egg.

The child understands the danger immediately. The shelter outside is not secure enough to hide them, so the child keeps urging the egg to move and hatch. Over many cycles, the child has chipped ice from a nearby pillar to keep around the egg, hoping that once the hatchling breaks free, the child can carry it inside the snow hut and keep it safe with Haedeon.

That plan matters because the larger situation is growing worse. Haedeon is still not recovering, and the child does not know how they will ever make it back to Arithia. At the same time, a pack of doomquills can be heard somewhere nearby, their rattling sounds suggesting that predators are closing in because they sense weakness and death.

While waiting, the child writes by the bright light cast from the silver egg and grips Haedeon's dragonscale dagger for protection. The child has never wanted to kill anything and fears that responsibility, but the child resolves to defend both the egg and Haedeon if the doomquills come too close. The chapter ends with the child trapped in a tense vigil, hoping the egg hatches before the hunters find them.