Raeve drops Tarik Relaken’s severed hand into a rubbish chute and waits for a whistle from another member of Fíur du Ath, confirming that the proof was received and that the network will now move to free the imprisoned younglings. Although Raeve sees herself as an Elding Blade who kills rather than rescues, this mission feels unusually personal to her, and she takes real satisfaction in imagining the children reaching safety at The Flourish. Her thoughts reveal both her pride in cleaning one stain from the world and her bitterness at being kept useful rather than ever truly retired.

Afterward, Raeve goes to a high, deserted skybridge above Gore and lies in the snow to release the tension of the mission. She imagines herself as a dragon flying free above the world, then opens her eyes to study the moon of a dead Moltenmaw hanging over the city. Looking at it leads her into darker reflection: Raeve prefers ignorance over grief, yet she still wonders whether dead dragons choose to fall in revenge or whether they are simply torn from the sky and die where they can.

While lying there, Raeve unfolds the parchment lark Essi sent earlier. Essi jokes anxiously about Raeve ignoring the message while killing someone, then lists supplies she wants from the Undercity and tells Raeve to take the list to Ruse if needed. Raeve is amused by Essi’s voice, mocks her claim to patience, and reacts with dread to the request for sowmoth powder because she remembers how unpleasant it was the last time she had to catch one alive.

The final item on Essi’s list is obscured by Tarik’s blood, leaving only the beginning of a request to go to the Undercity and the word SPLAT. That stain sends Raeve into memory: she recalls finding Essi as a starving child fleeing with stolen bread, disguised as a boy to avoid harassment in the mines, and learning that Essi had been born in an abandoned shaft and had never even seen the sky. Raeve had just killed a cruel supervisor when she took Essi out to see the sky for the first time and promised to keep her safe.

Back in the present, Raeve pockets the ruined note and decides she cannot go into the Undercity yet because she has been told to keep her distance until Tarik’s captives are safely out of Gore. She may still collect the rest of Essi’s supplies later, but she also recognizes another danger: she spared the mysterious, sweet-smelling watcher who knows her alias and may connect her to Tarik’s death. For a woman who usually kills first and avoids reflection, that choice leaves Raeve uneasy and expecting consequences.