A day and a half after inviting Gideon to the Luminaries Dinner, Rune receives a plain box tied with Wintersea-blue ribbons. Inside is a mint-green dress and a brief note from Gideon: “Are you asking me to be your date?” Rune tries the dress on and is shaken by how beautiful it is and how strongly it affects her despite her resentment of him.

Rune writes back to Gideon, clearly confirming that she is asking him to be her date, and joking that her plan is to win him over so he will keep making her dresses. She struggles to focus on preparing her Luminaries speech afterward, her thoughts pulled off course by Gideon’s gift and her own reaction to it.

Lizbeth interrupts Rune’s practice to announce an unexpected visitor: Blood Guard Captain Gideon Sharpe. Rune realizes she is still wearing the unlaced dress and rushes to change, but also worries because she does not yet have the suit jacket she planned to enchant with a Truth Teller spell to extract information from Gideon.

Rune hurries downstairs in a simple sundress and finds Gideon waiting in the foyer in rolled-up shirtsleeves. Seeing him up close rattles her—both because of their recent violent encounter and because she fears what he might remember from the mine—yet she masks it with politeness.

Gideon asks Rune to take a walk with him to the nearby beach. Rune agrees, accepts a shawl from Lizbeth, and leads Gideon out through the house and into the gardens, belatedly wondering if she should have brought her knife.