After a restless, anxious night sleeping with her saber within reach, Viv collapses into deep sleep and wakes late the next day, frustrated with herself for setting back her recovery in the brawl. She resolves to follow Highlark's healing instructions—mostly.

Viv visits Fern's bookshop and helps paint the upper portion of the door red, since Fern is too short to reach. While painting, she relays the events of her night in jail, including the gray man's escape and her suspicions about a connection to the necromancer Varine the Pale. Fern is shaken, especially recalling the man's dead eyes when he struck Potroast. Viv reassures her that the stranger has no reason to come after the bookshop, insisting any threat would be aimed at Viv herself.

Gallina arrives, accidentally smudging the wet paint, and meets Fern. The gnome quickly makes herself at home, claiming a chair and bonding with Potroast (whose real name, Fern explains, is Pallus, after a gryphon in The Fourth Wish). Gallina demands more chapters of Sea of Passion. The three banter, and Viv notices how naturally she now belongs in the shop. Viv and Fern had been discussing a gift book for a friend.

Viv then visits Maylee at Sea-Song bakery during a rare quiet moment and gives her the wrapped gift: a book of gnomish pastry recipes that Fern helped select. Maylee is delighted, charmed by the woodcuts and elaborate steps. When Viv awkwardly thanks Maylee for thinking of her in prison, Maylee replies that she hasn't stopped thinking of Viv since she arrived, leaving Viv flustered but pleasantly so as she departs.