Santngel risks discovery by coming to Luzias room, and they sleep together in a brief, urgent encounter. Afterward, Luzia asks what it means to be a familiar, and Santngel explains that a familiar exists to serve: if Luzia wins, Vedctor benefits, and because Vedctor has no magic, he can give nothing backbut Luzia can. Their intimacy deepens as Santngel admits he once chased excess to escape loneliness and misery, a confession that mirrors Luzias own temptation to cling to fleeting happiness.

Before dawn, Santngel leaves to avoid being caught, offering affection but no promises of an easy future. Luzia wakes late with nothing to do but worry about the final trial and Hualits offer of escape. Seeing herself in the mirror, she recognizes both the danger and the comfort of what she feels for Santngel, and she turns her thoughts to the practical stakes: even if she wins, Santngel remains cursed to serve the De Paredes name, and Luzia may end up bound to the king in a different way.

Valentina arrives and silently helps tame Luzias hair into a braided coronet, a small intimacy that underscores how much has changed since Concha left. Luzia tries to keep her focus on strategyhow to force Don Vedctor to break Santngels curse and what choices Luzia might have if the king does not pick her as championbut her mind keeps drifting toward the possibility of a shared life with Santngel beyond Madrid.

Valentina invites Luzia to walk in the gardens, where they see Fortfan Donadei with Dof1a Beatriz. Nearby, Signor Rossi has set up a charcoal sketch dramatizing the previous nights chaos: Gracia is shown cowering in prayer while Luzia and Fortfan appear as heroic partners, and Teoda Halcf3n has been effectively erased from the scene. Fortfan praises the image and suggests it represents what should bea shared rise for two common-born competitorsbut Luzia rejects the revision, insisting that someone is responsible for what nearly killed them.

Pressed, Fortfan admits he does not truly believe Teoda (the Holy Child) caused the attack and instead implicates Santngel. He claims Dof1a Beatriz has told him Santngel is cursed, argues that curses demand sacrifice, and warns that Don Vedctor and Santngel have long targeted milagreros who later met ruin. Luzia stays guarded, calling it speculation and refusing to give Fortfan leverage, but the accusations rattle her as he frames love and alliance as tools of control and survival. When Fortfan reaches for Luzias hand, she recoils and ends the conversation with a bleak reminder: whatever stories they tell, they are ultimately alone.