After Elspeth casts them off, Peter decides to leave Alice and abandon the quest. Their simmering grievances explode: Peter accuses Alice of coldness and of planning to sacrifice him; Alice cites his notes and past choices. Before they can part, the ground turns treacherous—what seemed like shore is a submerged bog of Wrath seething with furious Shades.

Alice falls in and glimpses an abyss of writhing dead. When Peter is dragged under, Alice flings Lethe from her Perpetual Flask; the sizzling droplets drive the Shades back. Peter sheds his rucksack to escape, and together they reach a narrow ridge and then solid ground, shaken but alive.

Assessing their losses—Peter’s pack gone, chalk and food compromised—Peter urges retreat to Asphodel to beg passage home. Alice insists they have come too far and argues they can still find Grimes. They compromise: press on without sleep as far as Tyranny and hope Grimes can help them return. Peter takes Alice’s pack and they head into the next court.

Crossing into Violence, a barren desert, they march by torchlight until the terrain loops on itself. Breadcrumbs confirm the circle. Peter uncovers a faint raised line—a perfect circle—and the ground opens, dropping them into a man-made pit. They climb embedded corner steps that never rise: a Penrose-stair Escher trap.

Searching for chalk sigils fails; the craftsmanship is seamless, Kripke-style visual magick. Above, a cuckoo on a spring chirps at intervals—Alice reads it as a signal. Despair cracks their resolve. Peter derides the quest as pointless and accuses Alice of idolizing Grimes. Alice denies it, says his death let her breathe, and finally confesses: she killed Grimes.