Ithan and Hypaxia meet on the Black Dock, each holding a Death Mark, and throw them into the river. The ripples pull south toward the Bone Quarter, and the marks vanish into the mist. While they wait, Ithan asks about Jesiba’s claim that Hypaxia and Governor Celestina were together; Hypaxia admits it lasted a while but is over, and she confesses her hurt that Celestina still did whatever it took to escape Nena, despite all the warnings about archangels being Asteri puppets.

The conversation turns to grief and the dead. Hypaxia explains she cannot and would not raise her mother, who ensured her soul could not be claimed by the Under-King; Hypaxia also fears her mother’s judgment, both as parent and queen, for Hypaxia’s defection and abdication. Ithan, now Prime, privately worries about the politics and optics of arranging the Sailing for the former Prime and for Sabine, especially since the former Prime’s soul is already gone.

A black boat arrives from the mist as Jesiba promised, and it takes them into the Bone Quarter. In a gray-stoned temple to Urd, Ithan and Hypaxia face the Under-King on his throne beneath a massive statue of Urd holding a black metal bowl etched with symbols that look strangely familiar to Ithan.

The Under-King needles Ithan about protocol and Hypaxia about Celestina, then Ithan makes his request: he wants to speak to his dead brother, Connor Holstrom, for a final goodbye. The Under-King demands assurances that Ithan will not stir unrest among the dead, and Ithan angrily recalls how the Under-King betrayed his friends to Pippa Spetsos.

Pressed by Hypaxia, the Under-King explains the Reapers originated in Hel, where they preyed on vampyrs; when vampyrs came to Midgard, the Reapers followed and began feeding broadly. He then reveals he is not from Hel but “birthed by the Void,” and that he slipped into Midgard through the same breach used by Ithan’s ancestors from the shifters’ world. The Under-King also claims “Urd” is a corrupted name for an older force called Wyrd, a world-governing cauldron of creation. Finally, he grants Ithan seven minutes and points to the doorway—where Connor appears, looking as alive as he ever did.