Wrenched back from the Exchange, Livira finds herself beside the grey assistant and a slumped raven. The lighted circle back to Evar will not admit her, and the assistant, barely animate, utters that the Exchange is forbidden. Livira, frustrated and unwilling to abandon Evar without explanation, resolves to return later.

Reinvigorated by her brief time in the Exchange, Livira decides to hurry Reflections on Solitude back to avert Algar’s scheme and protect her allies. She pockets Reflections and the dark book, lifts the heavy, stiff raven, and starts the long return, suspecting the assistant may have drained the bird.

At a suspected door, the surface yields only when Livira presses the raven to it, slowly opening enough to pass. She retraces her route, pausing at the stained “focus” to set the raven down in hopes of revival, but nothing changes. Still seeking help for it, she climbs a ladder, places the bird atop the shelves, sits with it, and absentmindedly eats her last apple.

A white assistant appears in the aisle below. Livira runs along the shelf-tops to hail him; her bitten apple vanishes, leaving only pips as he calmly declares, “You are not permitted to bring food into the library.” Dizzy at the height and edge, Livira loses balance and falls.