Livira leads Evar and Malar through the aisles toward a looming wall of smoke, listening for the heavy steps of assistants. She plans for Malar and herself, as ghosts, to seize the two approaching assistant bodies once an Escape leaves one to attack the other. Evar objects, but Livira keeps him out, wanting him safe.

The first assistant staggers out and collapses as an Escape slips free toward the smoke. Livira releases Malar to take that body and sprints after the fleeing Escape, diving into the second assistant where another Escape attacks. Inside the host, the fight is mental: the Escape strips Livira’s memories, but her unbreakable recall lets her reclaim them and destroy it, then she tears apart the second Escape outside the body.

Livira and Evar break from the smoke and meet Malar, who has forced the Escape in his host to flee. The assistants’ pallor shows Livira and Malar now hold them. Livira returns Malar’s sword and presses on, intent on “the bleeding,” her only way to access the Exchange using an assistant’s privilege.

At the center circle, panic reigns as Arpix’s group realizes the fire has sealed every route. Livira, numbed by the assistant’s influence, cannot simply open a portal and balks at the rule that timebound beings may not enter the Exchange. Malar hesitates to help, citing the prohibition and risks to time’s flow.

Committed to breaking rules to save the others, Livira drives her palm onto Malar’s sword, draws a glowing blood circle on the floor, and falls through it into the Exchange, gambling herself to find a path out of the trap.