Rune spends the day packing for Caelis and listing what she will send for once she and Alex are settled. Nervous excitement runs through her as the timeline closes in: Seraphine’s rescue is in two days, and Rune and Alex will depart the morning after.

Verity arrives and notices the cleared shelves and crates of spellbooks. Rune tells Verity she is leaving the New Republic with Alex and shows her the ring Alex gave her. Instead of reacting with anger, Verity admits she regrets pushing Rune to choose based on usefulness and apologizes for prioritizing the mission over their friendship; she wants Rune safe and promises to visit.

When Alex arrives, the three meet in Rune’s casting room to finalize the rescue plan for Liberty Day. Verity produces two stolen Blood Guard uniforms, revealing she intends to accompany Rune so Rune won’t look suspicious alone. Rune protests the danger, but Alex agrees it is safer in pairs; Rune relents, comforted despite the risk.

They rehearse the details: Rune will meet Verity at Verity’s dorm at three, they will disguise themselves and use Gideon’s access coin to pass the prison’s seventh gate, claim orders to take Seraphine to her purging, and extract her to Alex waiting with horses. Rune will then hide Seraphine at Thornwood Hall, and the next day Rune and Alex will sail to Caelis with Seraphine concealed in their cargo. Rune quietly notes her dwindling blood vial and that she cannot easily replenish before tomorrow.

Later, Rune finds a ribbon-tied box on her bed with a letter from Gideon. Gideon explains he told Harrow and Laila he felt nothing for Rune to avoid being declared compromised, admits he began courting her to catch the Crimson Moth, and insists their night together was real for him. Rune acknowledges she has also used deception, but concludes Gideon would arrest her if he knew the truth; she decides he is still her enemy and that she must tell him she is marrying Alex and leaving. Opening the box, she finds a bouquet of silk buttercups Gideon sewed for her, and though moved, she resolves to return them and say goodbye to Gideon forever before the rescue.