Ruhn keeps vigil beside Lidia in the Depth Charger’s medical bay, living on little more than the beeping of machines and his own guilt. Though his severed hand has regrown weakly, he refuses firstlight potions for himself and insists every drop go to Lidia, who arrived with catastrophic injuries after being shot through the heart and smashing onto rocks.

Ruhn recalls that Lidia was fully dead when Tharion brought her aboard; the medwitches used their rare firstlight stores to rebuild her body, and Hunt Athalar repeatedly used lightning to jump-start Lidia’s heart when she flatlined. Flynn urges Ruhn to sleep and promises to watch Lidia, but Ruhn can’t leave after remembering the last thing he told her: that she was “dead to” him. Ruhn tries reaching Lidia mentally—first as “Day,” then by her name—but receives only silence.

Elsewhere on the ship, Hunt eats with Tharion and probes Tharion’s ties to the Viper Queen before turning to their larger problem: Bryce is missing, likely in another world, and Hunt doesn’t know how to find her. Hunt decides Bryce would want their allies warned about what she learned—that the Asteri are killable—and asks Tharion to help arrange contact with the Ocean Queen, whose quiet support of Ophion raises questions.

Hunt later finds Baxian pushing himself in the gym to escape “bad thoughts.” They discuss Hunt’s restored wings, the returned halo and brand, and the difficulty of removing it without Hypaxia. Baxian admits he never knew Lidia was secretly working against the regime, and he asks whether she will survive; Hunt answers that they need her alive, determined to make the Asteri pay.

Tharion, spiraling over leaving Holstrom behind and the fallout from his choices—including Sigrid’s death and Ariadne’s fate—approaches Sendes to request a meeting with the Ocean Queen for himself and Hunt. Sendes reveals the Ocean Queen is coming to the ship tomorrow and specifically wants to see them, but warns she seems displeased and that the Viper Queen and River Queen may be threatening war over Tharion being harbored.