Lysander wakes before dawn exhausted and feverish, his infected facial wound worsening. The party moves out in silence across chalk flats. Kalindora keeps herself between Lysander and Cicero, signaling distrust, and quietly recites poetry as the sun rises. Water is scarce; the Grays hack cacti for moisture while Kalindora presses Lysander to drink despite the shortage.

When Cicero spots a hydra burrow, he orders the group to back away, explaining hydras hunt sunbloods and would take humans too. Resting near a downed bomber in the distance, Kalindora and Lysander discuss the Mind’s Eye and Octavia’s mastery, briefly grounding themselves in memory and discipline amid the heat and hunger.

A distant stampede of sunbloods foreshadows danger. A vast sandstorm rolls in behind them, and Cicero shouts for everyone to run for the bomber. The uninjured Golds surge ahead, leaving the wounded to lag. Kalindora tries to help Lysander, but he urges her to go; after a moment of fear and hesitation, she sprints away toward safety.

Alone and out of options, Lysander abandons the run for the wreck and makes a calculated choice. He returns to the hydra burrow and, with Cassius’s razor reshaped into a falchion, frantically widens the entrance. As the sand wall engulfs the flats, he claws inside, ripping his sides but slipping beneath the surface, choosing the predator’s den over certain death in the storm.