Gabriel, drinking in the Perfect Husband taverne in Dhahaeth after his flight from the wretched, was surprised by the arrival of Chloe Sauvage. Last seen in San Michon wearing Sorority vestments, Chloe now appeared as a traveling warrior, armed with a wheellock and a silversteel longblade, still bearing a sevenstar. She embraced Gabriel in tears and checked on his welfare, while he noted her hardened, road-worn demeanor and silversteel sword.

Chloe was accompanied by four others: an elderly Sūdhaemi priest with a bookish air; a formidable Ossway Highlander woman with slayerbraids, clan kilt, many weapons, and a mountain lion named Phoebe; a handsome young soothsinger; and a pale, white-haired teenage boy named Dior dressed in a noble frockcoat over patched clothes. When the lioness caused a stir, the Highlander sent it to the stables. Chloe called the group "friends of a sort" and sat to speak quietly with Gabriel.

They exchanged brief updates. Chloe asked after Astrid Rennier, and Gabriel said Astrid was at home, offering no details. The narrative frame briefly cut to the present, where Jean-François, Gabriel’s vampire chronicler, pressed him about Astrid’s place in his life seventeen years after San Michon, but Gabriel refused to answer and resumed the tale.

Back at the taverne, Chloe said her party was headed north toward Elidaen and suggested sharing the road, warning that Ossway teemed with the Dead and that something inhuman trailed them. Gabriel, drinking heavily, was dismissive and claimed he would travel by boat. Chloe scrutinized his frayed state and gear, and he challenged her transformation from cloistered sister to sellsword; she said matters had grown complicated after events involving him and Astrid at San Michon. When Gabriel accused her of not saying goodbye back then, their exchange turned sharp, and Chloe proposed talking in the morning when he was sober.

Insisting there was purpose in their reunion, Chloe invoked divine providence and said she needed a sword like Gabriel’s. Lowering her voice, she revealed she had found "the answer"—a weapon no vampire could withstand. When Gabriel asked what it was, Chloe declared it was the Grail. Gabriel leaned back and, inebriated and cynical, fell off his chair laughing at the claim.