In the Astronomer’s orrery, Bryce faces a direct conversation with Thanatos through a mystic’s projection. Thanatos immediately recognizes Bryce as Starborn and as the woman who killed his creature, the Shepherd, revealing that the Shepherd had been his spy in the Bone Quarter and had reported on the dead. When Ithan asks about Connor Holstrom, Thanatos says Connor is not in Hel at all but remains in the Bone Quarter, apparently protected by an unclear order that he be left alone for a time. Bryce also asks whether souls like Connor can be helped, and Thanatos says only the Asteri would know.

Tharion then presses Thanatos about Emile Renast and even reveals that the missing boy is a thunderbird. Thanatos does not know Emile, which reassures Bryce, but he confirms that thunderbirds were once considered a threat the Asteri supposedly wiped out. Before he explains more, Thanatos grows bored with the questioning, plunges the room into darkness, and turns his attention to the mystic serving as the conduit.

Thanatos begins feeding on the male mystic’s soul, taunting the man’s loneliness and desperation while frost spreads across the room and the machinery fails. He declares that he cares nothing for his brothers’ rules and promises that when the barrier between worlds opens again, he will feed on Bryce and the others. As the power dies and the mystics risk drowning in their tanks without respirators, Ithan ignores the Astronomer’s protests and physically breaks the ice and pulls all three mystics free.

Once the systems restart, the immediate danger passes, but the aftermath is grim. The rescued mystics are not grateful; the female mystic begs to be sent back into the drifting, half-living state the Astronomer maintained for them. The Astronomer angrily insists that the mystics can no longer bear ordinary life and moves to reconnect them, while Bryce realizes she still cannot save the fire sprites trapped in his rings without triggering legal and political consequences she cannot afford.

Outside in the rain, Bryce turns her fury on Tharion for using the visit to pursue his own agenda and for exposing Emile’s secret. Tharion fires back that his family’s dependence on the River Queen has made moral compromises unavoidable, and the argument ends with Bryce declaring that they are done working with him. Before the conflict can go further, Ithan spots Mordoc waiting in the alley, and Bryce’s anger gives way to alarm at the new threat.