Nine years after returning, Charlie explains that he has become a literature scholar and teacher, and still wonders about Empis under Queen Leah. Radar is aging but well. He reflects on what he told and withheld from others.

Charlie confesses the truth to his father, George Reade, showing his bite scar and a gold knocker. Skeptical at first, George is finally convinced by Radar’s distinctive old scars on her now-young snout. Charlie reveals Bowditch’s gold and the baby light. Together they craft an amnesia-based cover story, call their dog Radar II, and avoid publicity despite a reporter’s request.

Charlie later learns from news reports that Christopher Polley was found stabbed under an overpass with two broken wrists. He suspects the stolen jewelry was the motive and feels lingering shame, imagining Polley’s helplessness and a possible eerie synchronicity with events in Empis.

Charlie takes his father through the shed: down the stairs, past bats, across the dizzying crossover, and out through vines into bright Empis near Dora’s house and a grazing horse. Overwhelmed, George accepts the reality. Charlie refuses any visits, insisting secrecy is vital and that they must protect both worlds.

That spring and summer, they repair the shed and Charlie learns concrete work. Before college, they lay steel over the well mouth and pour a thick concrete slab, setting Radar’s pawprints in it. Though heartsick at sealing away magic—with Gogmagog still below—Charlie insists it is necessary. In the years after, nightmares fade into dreams of Red Hope. Father and son keep discreet watch over 1 Sycamore, and Charlie plans one day to pass the house—and its stories—to his children.