After the mermaid and merbaby return to the sea, Kiela cleans the cottage with help from Caz and the cactus, salvaging most of her jam jars and spellbooks. She sleeps deeply and wakes the next morning thinking first not of her books but of the merbaby and the rescued woman, recognizing that Caltrey is changing her.

Carrying a jar of jam as a gift, Kiela sets out to check on the mermaid (gone back to sea) and then Larran. Descending the cliff stairs, she discovers Larran has repaired the broken steps and railing, an unasked kindness she believes was done for her. She arrives at his cottage to find it empty and tidy, the rescued woman gone, and briefly examines her own feelings of near-jealousy before deciding to visit Bryn instead.

The town is in disarray from the storm, with dead fish, debris, and townspeople cleaning up. Bryn's bakery is mostly intact. Kiela offers to help pour tea in exchange for cinnamon buns while Bryn manages her nephew Tobin's kitchen mishap.

While serving tea, Kiela hears Larran's laugh and sees him seating the rescued red-haired woman, Radane, who is from Alyssium. Radane tells the gathered townspeople she fled violence in the capital, then reveals there has been a revolution: riots, a coup, the emperor murdered, the palace and government buildings burned, and even the library destroyed. Overwhelmed by traumatic memories of the library's fall, Kiela abandons her task and flees the bakery, possibly hearing Larran call after her, and runs home through the forest.