Gabriel de León sneaks from his bed to the Great Library near second bell, expecting another clandestine night of research with Sisternovice Astrid Rennier. He discovers Astrid waiting with another girl: Sisternovice Chloe Sauvage. Astrid invokes a favor Gabriel owes her and insists he repay it by teaching Chloe swordplay for two hours each week; in return, Chloe will help them translate and search forbidden texts about Daysdeath and rumors of a fifth bloodline.

Though skeptical, Gabriel agrees when Astrid produces wooden practice swords. He begins Chloe’s first lesson, stressing that skill outweighs strength and instructing her to “always look your enemy in the eye.” They train basics around the Library while Astrid sketches from the windowsill. By the end, Chloe is exhausted but exhilarated, and even Gabriel concedes she is excellent for a beginner.

The three then settle to study: Chloe selects an ancient brass-bound tome written in languages she can read, Astrid curls up with a scroll and sketchbook, and Gabriel struggles through chapters. Astrid mentions her artistic training and her role engraving aegis; their banter is interrupted when Astrid’s nose bleeds, triggering Gabriel’s paleblood thirst. He masks his reaction by offering a kerchief and forcing the hunger down, privately ashamed of his nature.

They continue reading into the night. Astrid smokes a blend of rêvre and traproot, and the conversation turns to rules, gender, and Church power. Astrid criticizes the male-dominated hierarchy and the pantheon, while Chloe, devout, rebukes her for blasphemy. Astrid teases Gabriel about his impending sixteenth saintsday, and their class and experience differences briefly surface.

A sudden light flares outside; they open the window to witness a rare falling star piercing the Daysdeath pall. Gabriel and Astrid whisper “Beautiful,” and Gabriel privately makes a wish. The sight leaves all three awed; Chloe declares the moment auspicious and claims their meeting was divinely ordained, a sign that God intends great things for them.

Cutting back to the prison frame, Marquis Jean-François derides Chloe as unbalanced, but Gabriel rejects that judgment. He explains Chloe’s fervor is shaped by life within San Michon’s holy trappings and concludes that she was not mad but a believer—something he, too, once was, but is no longer.