Brother Diaz and Vigga creep through the ruined town following Alex and Sunny's path. The square is full of mutilated and burned corpses, and Diaz is horrified by the scale of the slaughter. Vigga studies the scene like a tracker, concludes that Alex and Sunny cut straight through the sacked town to shake pursuers, and leads Diaz to a riverside pier where the trail ends.

At the wharf, Vigga decides Alex and Sunny most likely escaped by boat, since water makes them harder to track. Before Diaz and Vigga can do more, they hear a crowd approaching from the square. Vigga wants to fight, but Diaz urgently pulls her toward an open warehouse and finally convinces her to hide with him instead, sparing them a confrontation with what sounds like a hostile mob.

Inside the dark warehouse, they wait in silence while torches and voices pass outside. Once the danger fades, Diaz is overwhelmed by exhaustion and reflects on how far his life has fallen from his former ambitions in the Church. Vigga unexpectedly agrees that Diaz was right to avoid another fight, admits she is too quick to violence, and says she needs help keeping the wolf in her under control.

Their conversation becomes more personal. Diaz admits fear has changed him, or returned him to an earlier self, and he privately recognizes virtues in Vigga that many priests lack. As they sit close together in the dark, Vigga turns the talk toward a monk's vows and teasingly asks whether there might be a loophole for intimacy with someone who is neither fully woman nor fully animal.

Diaz insists that such a thing would still be wrong and briefly refuses her. But after pushing Vigga away, he abruptly yields to desire, pulls her back, and kisses her. In doing so, Diaz breaks with his vows and with the restraints he has been trying to preserve, while his relationship with Vigga shifts into open physical intimacy.