At Bryn's bakery, Bryn gives Kiela a cinnamon bun as a welcome and a salty silver swift fish pastry, chattering away and asking why Kiela left Alyssium. Kiela deflects, terrified that revealing she was a librarian could lead to discovery of the smuggled spellbooks and intervention by imperial investigators. Bryn graciously drops the questioning and offers friendship instead, which unsettles and tempts Kiela, who has only ever had Caz for company.

Kiela asks about Caltrey's decline. Bryn explains that the emperor stopped sending sorcerers to balance weather and renew spells on the outer islands, calling it a waste of magic. Fish and merhorses have dwindled, harvests fail, and villagers resent city dwellers. Kiela recalls revolutionary arguments about hoarded magic and a boy executed for trying to liberate a spellbook to end a drought, and recognizes how close the villagers' anger comes to her own former role.

With Bryn's help, Kiela buys flour, seeds, soap, candles, bread, and—almost accidentally—a chicken, spending most of her coin. Climbing back to the cottage, she hears voices and finds Larran shirtless on her roof unclogging her chimney while Caz chats with him, recounting an embarrassing library story. The chicken escapes into the brambles; Larran advises leaving feed out and offers care tips.

Larran insists on lighting the stove and cooking the eggs he previously gifted her, producing scallions and a forgotten tomato from his pocket. He reveals he knew Kiela in childhood and that her family had been kind to him when others weren't, so he feels indebted. He sets the table with daisies and napkins, and the omelet is delicious. He offers to show her his merhorses.

Despite his kindness, Kiela snaps that he keeps invading her privacy and that they are not friends—she cannot risk uninvited visitors with the spellbooks hidden in the next room. Larran is hurt and silent. Caz breaks the awkwardness by asking whether merhorses eat plants.