Evar bursts from the pool into the library, sprinting through falling stacks toward Livira. He reaches the corridor, strewn with dozens of dead skeer and the halved body of the Soldier, and discovers the Assistant’s white shell shattered. Believing Livira gone, Evar kneels, touches the ruined face, and howls his grief.

Unseen, ghost-Livira and ghost-Malar watch. Malar urges action, while Livira tries to rouse Evar, brushing his shoulder and insisting she still needs saving. They remain ghosts, unable to fully reach him, but Livira’s intent nudges Evar to face danger.

Three skeer advance. Evar chooses to stand and die defending Livira’s remains, knife ready. Clovis erupts from behind, slaying one, crippling another, and dueling the third with acrobatic precision. Knocked down, she buys time as Evar and Kerrol scramble onto a skeer; Evar stabs an eyelet, is thrown, and Clovis finishes it with the Soldier’s sword. Kerrol rises bruised; a lone skeer waits in the doorway, holding it open for reinforcements.

Clovis refuses to kill the doorkeeper skeer, noting that doing so would force one of them to keep the door open. As Evar mourns, Kerrol shifts the focus: he presses Evar about the book, admits he knew Mayland wasn’t dead, and declares the skeer’s real mistake was leaving the door open. Kerrol heads out to find Clovis’s war and claims he knows where to find Livira, drawing Evar toward renewed purpose.