Unable to re-enter Livira’s pool, Evar circles it in frustration, salvages a Crunian parchment bearing her scent, and finally forces himself to leave. Fearing all pools may reject him, he tests another that admits his hand and decides to jump, trusting experience over certainty.

He surfaces in what appears to be his library but changed: expanded crops, the defensive wall gone, and unfamiliar people moving among the stacks. When Evar speaks, no one responds; his hand passes through a man like ice. He realises he is a ghost here—able to observe but unable to touch or be heard—so he watches a bustling community at peace.

A red-haired child darts past, pulling Evar after her. He finds her with her parents and two brothers and, stunned, recognises in the girl the features of his sister, Clovis. As the family eats, the father chides a son, Cannir, to share, confirming names that deepen Evar’s shock.

Explosive bangs and screams shatter the calm. Sabbers flood from the stacks, cutting down the unarmed. The father, Artur, is fatally shot; Evar’s attempts to shield the children pass through them. A grizzled sabber executes the fallen methodically. The red-haired mother smashes a warrior down with an iron-hinged book, drags Clovis from beneath Artur’s body, and flees amid the slaughter.

Horror-struck and powerless, Evar follows, then stops as understanding strikes: the sabbers attacked from the pools. The revelation recasts the pools not only as paths but as portals for invasion, and binds Evar’s discovery to his own family’s past through the child he believes is Clovis.