A greenish-yellow poison cloud erupts from the laboratory, flensing Livira’s eyes and lungs. Thinking fast, Livira crawls to the courtyard fountain, soaks her robe, and uses the wet cloth to breathe. Guided by choking, she finds Arpix and douses him, then reenters the fumes to haul Malar out. With Arpix’s help, she drags Malar beyond the worst of the gas.

Masked alchemists emerge, check the collapsed doorman, and administer reactive vapours to Livira’s group. The treatment eases them enough to move, though all are battered; Livira and Arpix’s hair is bleached by the gas. Despite the infirmary’s advice, Malar refuses to remain, and the trio are brought—satchels delivered—to Master Hiago Abdalla.

Abdalla accuses them of bringing a deliberate attack that killed the doorman and coincided with an apprentice’s disappearance, calling it unforgivable given compounds that could “bring down this arm of the mountain.” Livira counters: the apprentice triggered the event and fled; Malar merely escorted them after earlier threats. Faced with her resolve and the library’s authority, Abdalla recalibrates, name-drops Master Henta, invokes shared purpose and “progress,” and ends the interview.

Outside in the evening air, they trade thoughts on ancient marvels and current advances. Abdalla’s claim about mountain-breaking explosives prompts Livira to connect scattered histories: perhaps civilizations rose and fell in cycles in the same places at different times—a notion Arpix warns is the Wroxan heresy. As they hurry back, Malar reminds Livira that Algar has already tried twice to have her killed, underscoring the immediate danger amid her larger revelation.