At dusk in the Hammered Smith inn, Saoirse reports that a pack of wretched is headed their way, first estimated at about a dozen. Gabriel warms his hands by the sanctified fire, and despite initial hopes they might pass by, Chloe insists the pack is coming for them. Accepting a fight is inevitable, Gabriel swiftly takes command and outlines a defense leveraging the palisade and the lake behind the town.

Gabriel sketches a town map on the floor and assigns tasks. He and Bellamy repair breaches with scavenged timbers, while Dior ferries wine bottles filled with lake water for Père Rafa to bless. Saoirse finds tallow for Chloe to make fire arrows. Gabriel, charged by sanctus, drives timbers into the frozen ground, prompting Bellamy to extol Gabriel’s legend as the Black Lion and Ashdrinker’s mystique. Dior inspects Ashdrinker, noting its broken tip, and Bellamy rattles off contradictory origin tales before Gabriel shuts him down.

They complete layered defenses: patched palisade breaches, an inner fallback ring of barricades, and a final refuge in the cathedral’s holy ground. Inside, over a meager meal, Gabriel assigns combat stations: he will hold the gate with Dior on the highwalk; Chloe and Saoirse will take the east breach; Rafa and Bellamy the west; and they will fall back in sequence if overrun.

Discussion turns to bloodlords and control over wretched, with Chloe explaining that highbloods can command lesser vampires and that these wretched appear leaderless. Dior asks about Gabriel “bathing the battlefield silver,” leading Bellamy and Chloe to explain the silversaints’ aegis, inked over Gabriel’s body and flaring in battle. Gabriel focuses them on practical weapons: holy water and fire.

A theological argument erupts when Rafa praises faith’s power. Gabriel counters with a scathing critique of prayer and divine plan, asserting that a sword is worth more than prayer and questioning the utility and arrogance of supplication. Tension rises as he loads sanctus into his pipe under Chloe’s uneasy gaze.

The planning halts when Saoirse bursts back in, reporting that Phoebe has returned from scouting and that the enemy force is far larger than expected: at least fifty wretched are only ten minutes out. The room falls into grim realization as Gabriel wryly asks Rafa if he wants to pray for angels now.