Ithan sits on the temple steps with Connor’s ghost while Hypaxia speaks privately with the Under-King inside. Connor looks as he did in life but glows with the bluish mark of the dead, and Ithan learns the hard way that he can’t physically touch him. With only minutes granted, Ithan tries to say everything he’s carried since Connor’s death.

Connor cannot speak at all, so he answers with gestures and expressions, stopping Ithan from blaming himself and urging him to share what’s happening. Ithan quickly explains the chaos with Sigrid and Sabine, the Prime situation, what Ithan has become, and the parasite and antidote. Connor’s response is pride and respect, but Ithan admits he doesn’t know how to lead or how to fix what’s broken.

Once they are sure they are alone, Connor reveals he knows about secondlight and tries to communicate something urgent by miming eating a spark of light. He then produces a bullet made of the same foul metal as a Death Mark—metal the dead can handle—but before Connor can fully explain, the Under-King emerges and declares the time is over. Connor pleads silently for Ithan to understand, but Ithan is forced to pocket the bullet.

Ithan refuses to accept the Under-King’s limits and rages at him, calling him an alien opportunist and rejecting the cruelty of death’s “Sailings.” Something primal and ancient answers in Ithan’s blood, and frost forms on his claws as he senses the Under-King as an enemy tied to old darkness and plundered graves. The Under-King reacts with fear, backing toward the temple as if recognizing what Ithan is.

As the Under-King raises a hand to summon his hounds, Ithan strikes first, encasing the Under-King in rapidly spreading ice until he becomes a frozen statue. Connor steps between them, not with disgust but with sorrow and worry. Jesiba Roga emerges from the temple shadows, tells Hypaxia to act, and Hypaxia swings an unlit brazier into the frozen Under-King, shattering him into sparkling shards of ice.