Gabriel returned alone to the Library’s forbidden stacks at night, expecting a clandestine meeting but instead luring Seraph Talon there. He accused Talon of invading his mind earlier that day and attempting to catch Gabriel with Astrid in order to destroy him without dirtying his hands. Talon denied the accusation, but Gabriel pressed, citing Talon’s voyeurism toward sisternovices and his earlier exposure of Aaron and Baptiste.

Gabriel then confronted Talon with darker charges: the murder of a serving girl in Coste and complicity in Sister Aoife’s death. He pointed to Talon’s blood-red eyes at Coste without the smell of sanctus, Laure Voss’s insinuations on the bridge, and Sister Aoife’s procurement of abortifacient herbs (honeywell, rowanwhite, rainberry) from Kaveh as evidence of a sexual relationship that resulted in a pregnancy. Gabriel accused Talon of killing Aoife and the unborn child to hide his failing control.

Talon broke, raging that Gabriel did not understand the growing madness of the sangirè and calling the unborn an abomination whose death was mercy. The argument erupted into violence; Talon overpowered Gabriel, beating him and biting his wrist and then his throat. As Gabriel succumbed to the vampiric “kiss,” Talon’s hunger surged, revealing how completely he had fallen.

Greyhand arrived and, after briefly acknowledging his disbelief, immediately ran Talon through with his silversteel sword, killing him. Talon’s last words promised Gabriel would one day understand and that he would await him in hell. Gabriel, badly wounded and shaken by how high a brother had fallen, reflected on the peril that any silversaint could succumb to the thirst.

Greyhand helped Gabriel toward the Infirmary, exchanging grim reflections on Talon’s corruption and the dangers of living in darkness. Greyhand told Gabriel that life is a story one can only live, not tell, and that he must choose whether his story is of horror or courage, indulgence or duty—of a monster or a man—leaving Gabriel with the question of what his story will be.