Leaving the palace, Rune rides back with Verity, who is shaken and angry after seeing Rune swallowed by spellfire and then flirt with Captain Gideon Sharpe. Rune insists the courtship is strategic, meant to extract Blood Guard information, but she cannot point to useful intel yet and feels Verity’s doubts.

At Thornwood Hall, Rune is drawn to Alex’s piano playing and briefly imagines accepting his offer to escape to Caelis. She rejects the fantasy, recommitting to her purpose in the New Republic: saving witches from imprisonment and purging, and honoring her grandmother’s death by continuing the work.

Alex notices Rune’s soot-stained dress and worryingly asks what happened. He shows Rune the deed to a house he has bought in Caelis and explains he is selling Thornwood Hall, forcing Rune to confront how much she relies on him as a safe, steady presence. Rune tries to be supportive and urges Alex to pursue his studies and composing, but their conversation turns intimate and unresolved before Verity interrupts with tea.

Verity briefs Alex on the night’s revelations: Seraphine is being held beyond the seventh gate, and captains carry access coins needed to move through Fortitude Gate’s prison. Verity also reports that spellfire nearly killed Rune and may have come from Seraphine, though Rune argues it should have been impossible with Seraphine restrained.

They shift into planning, deciding they must break Seraphine out quickly before a public purging. Rune says she will need a Blood Guard uniform and an access coin; Verity offers to steal a trainee uniform through a dorm contact, saving her last Ghost Walker blood vial for emergencies inside the prison. Alex unexpectedly volunteers to secure Gideon’s access coin within days, and all three conclude the Republic will likely wait to purge Seraphine on Liberty Day—less than a week away—so they must be ready before then.