Hunt, shackled with a renewed halo and branded wrist, watches Bryce enter the Ocean Queen’s chamber and realizes she seems both familiar and changed—carrying the bearing of a true ruler. Bryce declares herself “Bryce Danaan, Queen of the Valbaran Fae,” and Hunt backs her immediately, introducing himself as her mate and claiming Tharion Ketos serves Bryce, not the Ocean Queen. The Ocean Queen refuses to recognize Bryce’s title, confines Tharion to the ship, and asserts that everyone aboard remains her “guests” until she decides otherwise.

Shifting into Bryce’s perspective, Bryce restrains her urge to cling to Hunt, fury building at the Asteri’s marks on him. Instead, she addresses the Ocean Queen directly and explains she traveled through a Gate in the Eternal Palace to the original world of the Fae using Luna’s Horn. Bryce reveals what she learned there: the Asteri infected Midgard’s waters with a parasite-like presence that forces everyone to make the Drop and surrender firstlight or else lose their powers and die. Bryce realizes the Ocean Queen suspected something similar, even if she did not know the truth.

Bryce states her intention to banish the Asteri, probing whether the Ocean Queen will provide forces. The Ocean Queen notes her people’s strengths are underwater, mentions Ophion’s remaining troops, and references Lidia Cervos’s recent operation; Sendes adds that prejudice and distrust hamper any unified alliance. When Hunt suggests Briggs, Bryce rejects the idea, convinced he would betray them, and the Ocean Queen agrees another route is needed.

Bryce then declares that Hel will aid them, defending the Princes of Hel as long-term opponents of the Asteri despite their reputation. The Ocean Queen challenges Hunt to confirm this, and Hunt admits it is difficult but says he trusts Hel if Bryce does—because they have few options. Bryce also demands transport to Avallen, claiming she needs access to its archives for research connected to the First Wars and Hel’s involvement, and presses the Ocean Queen to name her price rather than obstruct them.

The confrontation escalates when the Ocean Queen proposes a different solution: evacuation—using the Horn to relocate as many as possible to the Fae home world and then sealing the passage forever. Bryce is horrified at abandoning most of Midgard and refuses, while Hunt echoes the moral and practical unfairness of selecting who escapes. The Ocean Queen reveals the mer existed on Midgard before the Asteri arrived and describes centuries of loss that made her pragmatic about survival, but Bryce calls her a coward for choosing flight.

Despite the tension, the Ocean Queen agrees to deliver Bryce and her allies to Avallen as a “last gift.” In return, she demands a future promise: if Bryce’s uprising fails and flight becomes necessary, Bryce must take as many of the Ocean Queen’s people as possible through the Horn.