Bryce has been camping out in the Griffin Antiquities library for three days, researching legal loopholes to free Hunt from slavery. She's been living at the gallery—showering there, eating takeout, canceling client meetings—while Jesiba is occupied at the Summit. She's also lined up interviews for new jobs and taken the last Archesian amulet from Jesiba's safe. Lehabah helps her search through legal tomes, but their progress is minimal.

Micah unexpectedly arrives at the gallery, bypassing all locks and enchantments. Bryce tries to steer him upstairs and away from the library's forbidden books, but he refuses. Syrinx, Lehabah, and the caged animals cower, while the nøkk grins ominously. Micah tells Bryce he came looking specifically for her, and she realizes she is in danger.

At the Summit, the proceedings are tedious and nearly over when Jesiba receives a message on her phone—from Bryce. Jesiba asks Declan Emmet to link her phone's video feeds to the conference room screens, revealing dozens of surveillance cameras inside Griffin Antiquities. The Summit attendees watch in real time as Bryce, visibly afraid, texts Jesiba a single word: "Help." Hunt, Ruhn, Flynn, Fury, and others react with alarm. Flynn orders an Aux unit dispatched to the gallery immediately, though Sabine notes most top security forces are at the Summit.

On the feeds, Micah reveals he knows exactly what the library contains: the surviving remnants of the Great Library of Parthos, a legendary collection of two thousand years of pre-Asteri human knowledge—banned books on evolution, mathematics, philosophy, and theories challenging Vanir and Asteri supremacy. He recounts how a hundred thousand humans died in the First Wars to buy time for priestesses to save the most vital volumes, which somehow ended up in Jesiba's possession. Micah notes that harboring these texts is punishable by execution. Jesiba, watching from the Summit, begs Flynn and Sabine to send help—not for Bryce, but for the books. Sandriel forbids the Aux from intervening and threatens Jesiba with Asteri punishment.

Bryce maintains a façade of calm, making cheese platters and deflecting Micah's provocations. She covertly signals Lehabah and Syrinx behind her back to flee upstairs, but neither moves. Micah insults Danika's memory, reveals his knowledge of the Archesian amulet's true origins, and finally states his purpose: he wants Bryce to give him Luna's Horn.