The chapter opens with Trystan (The Villain) in the cellar with Blade and Gushiken, checking on the two guvres now reunited in a single enclosure after Trystan had the wall between their cages removed. Though he insists he doesn't feel pity, it's clear the sight of the male guvre desperately scratching at the wall to reach his mate had moved him. Both guvres are contained, and Blade reports that Ms. Erring has recovered.

Trystan returns upstairs to find Evie has already gone home for the day. He learns from Tatianna and Clare that Evie left with the dagger in its box, which alarms him. Clare urges Trystan to tell Evie the truth about the gold mark on her body—that instead of the standard green employment bargain ink, he used gold ink, which serves as a protection ward. The gold mark connects to a matching ring of gold ink on Trystan's arm, alerting him through a burning sensation whenever Evie faces mortal danger. Trystan acknowledges it was an overstep but justified it as practical, having felt an inexplicable protectiveness toward Evie from the moment he met her.

When Tatianna asks about the traitor investigation, Trystan reveals that none of his employees have been found guilty, leading him to believe someone is infiltrating the manor from outside. A guard named Marvin then rushes in with an urgent missive: the knight Lark Moray, who purchased Clare's blue ink, died just one day after buying it—meaning he could not have been the one who later acquired the timepiece from Malcolm or planted the bomb. The trail they had been following was entirely wrong.

Clare, visibly shaken, reveals that a man calling himself "East Marigold" has been visiting her shop, asking many questions about her and her family. One night, drunk, he accidentally revealed his real name, which Clare confirmed in the town registry: Griffin Sage—Evie's father. Kingsley the frog confirms this with a sign reading "Father." Rebecka then recalls that Evie once bragged about special ink her father had gifted her. She retrieves a purple ink vial from Evie's desk, and Clare identifies it as blue magical ink dyed with red to appear purple. This means everything Evie wrote in her notebook—plans, safe houses, manor access routes—was visible to her father through the ink's magical properties.

The group realizes that Griffin Sage has been the traitor all along, exploiting his own daughter's meticulous note-taking to spy on The Villain's operations. Trystan, furious and terrified, recognizes that Evie is now at home alone with her father, the very man who planted the bomb that nearly killed her. He storms out into a thunderstorm with Tatianna, declaring he doesn't yet know what he'll do but knows who he wants to kill.