Prospero the Enchanter quietly retires from touring without explanation, but Hector Bowen continues traveling by hiring out sixteen-year-old Celia as a fraudulent spiritual medium. Celia hates the work and the grieving clients who treat her like a conduit rather than a person, while Hector coldly insists their desperation is profitable and that performing is “practice” for the coming challenge. Celia sometimes lashes out by breaking clients’ valuables and blaming “spirits,” and Hector repeatedly gives her false names, often “Miranda,” to needle her.

After months of exhausting travel and deliberate deprivation—Hector keeps Celia thin to look convincing—Celia truly faints during a session. Hector finally returns them to their New York home. During tea, he immediately books another high-paying widow, dismissing Celia’s need for rest and casually comparing her to her dead mother, provoking Celia’s resentment. Celia presses Hector about the promised challenge, and Hector explains that their side must wait to be “notified” when play begins, insisting Celia must keep practicing regardless.

Celia demonstrates her power by folding the papers on Hector’s table into elaborate forms. Hector responds with brutal discipline: he smashes a glass paperweight onto Celia’s hand, breaking her wrist, and repeats that Celia’s control is lacking. Celia silently leaves and painstakingly heals her own bones, absorbing both the lesson and the cruelty.

In London, Isobel sits in Marco’s flat attempting a ribbon charm Marco has suggested, but she gives up, saying she cannot force belief. Marco then tests his ability by asking Isobel to think of an object he cannot know, and Marco accurately pulls an image of a sapphire-and-diamond gold ring from Isobel’s mind. Marco goes further, learning Isobel sold the ring in Barcelona after fleeing an arranged marriage, and Isobel deflects by pointing out Marco shares little about himself.

A knock interrupts them: the man in the grey suit appears and, without entering, instructs Marco to apply for a job with Monsieur Lefèvre using an assumed name. He frames the interview as a “preliminary maneuver” rather than the start of the challenge, and warns Marco to avoid “distractions,” pointedly referencing Isobel hidden in the other room. After he leaves, Marco is left staring at the business card and the implied narrowing of his choices.

Back in New York, Hector allows Celia to stay in the city, largely ignoring her while he isolates himself upstairs. Celia revels in reading and practices by breaking and repairing objects, animating books, and mastering fabric manipulation to refit her gowns as she regains weight and autonomy. When Hector refuses to come out even to answer her knocks, Celia discovers the door uncharacteristically unlatched and catches him watching his arm as his hand fades away and returns, his joints audibly creaking. Hector snaps that it is none of Celia’s concern and slams the door, hinting at a private deterioration or experiment.