At Dora’s, Charlie accepts a light cart and food for the journey, intending to reach Leah’s uncle before dark. On the road he meets refugees, including a pregnant woman carrying her dead child; he gives them a shoe token and directs them to Dora and the goose girl’s farm, keeping his cart for Radar.

As Radar falters, Charlie loads her into the cart and notes his speech shifting toward fairy‑tale cadence. After a muddy stretch and seeing AB marks left by Bowditch, he pauses beneath an oak and presses on.

Near a rise, Charlie encounters Peterkin, an old dwarf torturing a rare red cricket. Charlie fires a warning shot to force its release. Peterkin jeers, hints at “night soldiers,” and departs, leaving Charlie uneasy he didn’t disarm him.

At dusk Charlie reaches a brick house lit by a Coleman lantern. Stephen Woodleigh—Woody—welcomes him, feeds him, and reveals he is blind, reads braille, and has been expecting Charlie via Leah’s tenuous intuition. Amid wolf howls, Woody notes Seafront’s decline and distinguishes King’s, Kingdom, and Seafront roads.

Woody explains Empis’s past: a purge in Lilimar slaughtered most royals; a few escaped, their blood resisting the gray but each cursed to lose a sense. He recounts fleeing the city, a near-capture by the giant Hana, and Aloysius’s death. He whispers the ruler’s name—Flight Killer—and warns of undead night soldiers. He urges Charlie to reach Claudia next, then the palace sundial to save Radar, following AB marks, staying silent, and leaving the city before dark.

Woody shows Charlie a portrait of Leah and Claudia “before,” forbids going outside at night, and at dawn provisions him. He adds a heavy golden door knocker as Woody’s token and future resource, reiterating the plan and the dangers as Charlie departs with Radar.