Viv organizes a picnic atop a bluff overlooking the sea near Murk, bringing Fern, Maylee, Gallina, and Potroast along. While framed as fresh air for Fern, who has been moping while awaiting Rackam's shipment, Viv uses the high vantage to scan the horizon for any sign of Varine. She leaves the greatsword Blackblood behind in favor of her saber for subtlety, though she refuses to be unarmed. Her leg has nearly healed, and she can wear her right boot again.

Viv brings Satchel along too, animating his bones so he can experience the sun and breeze. He wanders the bluff wistfully, marveling at the world after spending so much of his existence in darkness, and gently dismisses any notion that he might one day walk freely among people.

The group enjoys Maylee's lavish picnic of bread, goat cheese, preserves, summer beer, and ginger cookies. Maylee leans against Viv affectionately, and Gallina dozes off with Potroast. Fern grows pensive, confessing she never asked her late father why he opened the bookshop, and worrying she only continues out of fear of having nothing left. Maylee draws her out: Fern keeps going for the moment when a reader sees what she sees—when a book becomes a mirror reflecting shared feeling. Maylee says it's the same reason she bakes.

The peaceful moment shatters when Satchel calls Viv over, addressing her gravely as "m'lady." Telling the others to stay put, Viv and Gallina join him at the graveyard's edge. There, scorched into a shield-sized circle of blackened earth, is an etched sigil: a diamond with branches like horns—a clear sign that Varine is near.