Peter steps through the frame dazed and scarred, and he and Alice reunite in a fierce embrace. Alice confirms he died and that she brought him back by performing Exchange using his notes. They exchange apologies, then turn to the Dialetheia as their means home.

Alice petitions King Yama for passage and the return of their surrendered years. After reflecting on magicians’ attempts to bend rules, Yama agrees to restore half their lifespans. Peter accepts; Alice yields. Yama absorbs the Dialetheia like starlight.

Yama conjures a spiraling staircase to the surface. As they climb, Alice feels lighter, looks back over Hell’s courts, and pities the Rebel Citadel’s smallness from above. The steps vanish beneath them, yet they rise unafraid.

They joke about dissertations and jobs, and tentatively acknowledge their love and future together. At a trapdoor ringed by glowing butterflies, one lingers at the lock; Alice thanks Elspeth and opens it.

They emerge into moonlit Magdalene College. Under bright stars, Alice recalls a past walk with Peter and Olbers’s paradox, resolves to accept grace without question, and, hand in hand, they return to the living world.