The princess narrator describes how the Creators have gone nearly silent and how the Aether Stone, working through the diadem’s tendrils, seems to be draining her body and soul. The strain leaves her too weak to eat, breathe comfortably, or function normally, and it makes her newly understand the suffering Mah endured for many phases.

She then recalls the recent committal rites for her dead family. Because grief and weakness have left her unable to stand, she can only sit in Haedeon’s chair while Náthae and Akkeri use aqua flame to return Mah and Pah’s bodies to the elements. Watching the pyres intensifies her despair, and she feels close to throwing herself into the fire as well.

Haedeon’s farewell unfolds differently. Instead of burning his body, Allume lifts him into the sky, carries him toward the darkness where dragon ancestors rest, curls around him, and solidifies before the narrator’s eyes. The act reads as both a refusal to live without him and an attempt to keep Haedeon from being alone in death.

After the rites, everyone else goes inside to feast in honor of the dead, but the narrator remains outside in the snow. She sings to Haedeon’s moon and traces its misshapen wing until Slátra comes to her, settles beside her, and makes a nest with her tail where the narrator falls asleep.

In the present, the princess says she has not recovered from this nightmare and is losing hope. Mah and Pah’s aides tell her that Arithia will not accept such a weakened queen unless she is bound to someone who can wield more than two elemental songs, and she is still too young to rule alone. A meeting of the Tri-Council in Bothaim will decide her future, yet custom forbids her from appearing publicly or speaking for herself before her binding, leaving her isolated and powerless.