Alice crashes into the shallow Lethe, stunned and half-paralyzed. Nearby, Nick Kripke struggles toward shore as memories stream out of him faster than he can move. The current of what he forgets drags the remainder away; a final wave rolls over him and, in an instant, Nick is gone.

Magnolia and Theophrastus appear, freed from earlier restraints, keening over the water. Theophrastus raises a blade to kill Alice, but Magnolia stops him and lifts him into her arms. Mother and son walk into the Lethe together; memories unspool—childhood, chalk, lectures, applause—until both dissolve. As Alice watches, she recalls sneaking into a Kripke talk and the awe Magnolia once inspired.

John Gradus arrives, exultant. He strides onto the water as a slender, shining boat approaches, crewed by a white-clad figure. Gradus is welcomed aboard, drinks from a bowl, and his memories spill away, hinting at past violence. He becomes something new—a luminous, future-facing spirit—and departs. The boat refuses Alice; a wave gently pushes her back to shore.

On the sand, Lethe water seeps into Alice’s skin, fizzing and erasing the tattoo of Grimes’s script. Relief turns to panic as knowledge vanishes—languages, texts, routines. Alice tries to lock Peter Murdoch’s face and mannerisms in her mind, but her thoughts slide; she contemplates forgetting, Plato’s anamnesis, and the pull of nothingness.

Ready to fade, Alice goes limp, half-welcoming oblivion. A prod jolts her: Elspeth, bird-skull mask over a bright face, with a smug, tail-swishing cat, rolls Alice onto her back and assesses her ruin, interrupting the river’s claim.