In her room, Paedyn and Ellie sort through white fabric samples for a wedding dress. Overwhelmed and fatalistic about surviving the final Trial, Paedyn asks Ellie to choose, but Ellie refuses, urging Paedyn to decide for herself. Paedyn picks a fabric with twining white vines and, deflecting further choices, selects roses for the ceremony, noting their beauty and thorns. After Ellie leaves, Paedyn falls asleep with a dagger under her pillow, haunted by nightmares of Adena’s death.

Waking before dawn with a painful clarity, Paedyn decides to return to Loot dressed in her old clothes and Adena’s torn vest. She walks through the slums, absorbing the stench, scarcity, Imperial presence, and the worsening poverty she once overlooked. The memories and guilt intensify as she approaches the Fort where she and Adena lived.

At the Fort, Paedyn discovers a colorful banner and neatly arranged belongings, signs of Adena’s effort to surprise her. Overcome, she collapses, grieving that Adena waited for her but never made it home. A stranger approaches, claims the alley is taken, and then recognizes her.

Paedyn recognizes him as the boy Adena was seeing during the Trials. He introduces himself indirectly through their shared memories: he is Hera’s cousin who used Hera to try to reach Paedyn in the castle, and he accuses Paedyn of being the reason Adena died. Paedyn accepts the blame and sorrow, and he reveals that Hera died in the first Trial and “Dena” in the last.

The confrontation softens into mutual grief. Paedyn notices Mak’s bruised, exhausted appearance and the vest he wears—made by Adena, matching Paedyn’s own. They acknowledge that both failed to save Adena, and that both held different yet profound places in her life.

Paedyn asks his name, and he tells her: Mak. She asks to hug him; he agrees for Adena’s sake. They hold each other, united in loss, until sunlight falls over them. Mak offers a small, sad smile and closes his eyes, saying he is “just admiring the sun.”