Gideon walks with Rune through Wintersea House’s gardens at dusk, noting how unguarded she looks without cosmetics or shoes. He notices a fresh gash on Rune’s forearm; Rune claims she fell while riding, then pivots to ask about the Luminaries Dinner. Gideon confirms he will accompany her, while privately reminding himself he is there to regain Rune’s trust as his best lead on the Crimson Moth.

Trying to make conversation, Gideon compliments the gardens, and Rune speaks tenderly about her grandmother, Kestrel, and the way she tended them. Gideon shares a small piece of his own past—his mother growing herbs in a window box—which highlights the gulf between their upbringings. Rune suggests Gideon could claim an estate as a reward from the Good Commander, even Thornwood Hall, but Gideon recoils from the idea, revealing how strongly he refuses that place.

At the garden’s edge, their talk turns sharp when Rune calls Old Town “quaint.” Gideon interprets it as condescension and lists the hunger, cold, and desperation he sees there, accusing Rune of being able to ignore “ugly things.” Rune pushes back that the Republic and the Good Commander are to blame for making people outcasts, and that the revolution promised a better world but has failed to deliver.

Gideon, still stung, snaps that Rune and her grandmother “flourished” under the witches and that any regime is the same to her; seeing Rune’s hurt, Gideon apologizes and concedes that the Republic has far to go. Rune then steps close and asks why she would be walking with him if she thought him beneath her, allowing Gideon to brush her windblown hair from her face; their tension shifts into something intimate but fraught.

Gideon insists their stations make them impossible and admits he doesn’t fit into Rune’s world, while Rune demands to know why he is with her if he believes she is shallow. When Gideon cannot answer, Rune concludes that one of them thinks they are too good for the other—and it is not her—and she leaves through a gate into the meadow. Gideon follows, recognizing his own fear of vulnerability, and tells Rune that if they are going to “do this,” there are things she deserves to know so she can decide whether he is what she wants.