Paedyn left the dungeons in a haze, devastated after recognizing the corpse as Mak, Adena’s boy from Loot, and grappling with guilt and relief that Kai lived while Mak died. She reflects that Mak wore Adena’s vest and concludes he had only wanted to join Adena “in the sky.” Ellie mentions she only learned that morning the arena fighter was not Kai, which Paedyn already knew.

Ellie fits Paedyn for a wedding dress: white fabric with lace and floral ribbons. Paedyn feels conflicted about the image of purity and about displaying her scar; Ellie offers to adjust the straps. Calum arrives to offer well-wishes. Paedyn asks him to walk her down the aisle, and Calum agrees, saying she looks like her mother and that the roses from his garden, grown with help from the Blooms, will suit the dress.

Paedyn reveals to Calum that Adam was not her biological father, as his journal said she arrived a week after his wife died in childbirth. Calum says Adam never told him and asks about the journal’s contents; Paedyn explains much was lost when she burned pages in the Sanctuary of Souls. Before leaving for a meeting with Kitt, Calum encourages her to flaunt her scar.

Encouraged by memories of Adena, Paedyn decides to remove the dress’s straps to display her survival in Adena’s honor, wanting to carry a piece of her into the wedding. After Ellie departs to fetch the seamstress, Kai appears in the doorway and begs her not to wear a veil, saying he wants to see her face one last time. He is shaken by the sight of her in a wedding dress for his brother.

Kai says he came only to leave a note but instead tells her she is missing something sharp. He returns Paedyn’s dagger—the one used in the arena—and admits he pulled it from Mak’s chest. Paedyn notices his cleaned but dirt-rimmed nails and realizes Kai buried Mak. Kai confirms he buried Mak in a poppy field and wishes he knew what happened to Adena after that Trial.

They share a tender exchange, with Kai calling her devastating and confessing he would bleed if she asked, while Paedyn insists she would never ask it. As he withdraws to avoid further torment, Kai says that as his queen, she would command it, underscoring the impossible position of their love against her duty to marry Kitt.