Retreating indoors after the headless Falada's reappearance, the group debates how the familiar can still walk despite being decapitated and burned. Hester theorizes Falada is more like a ghost or familiar spirit than a true horse, not bound by physical rules. Cordelia confirms he doesn't need to eat. They resolve to research further, with the geese expected to alert them if Falada returns.

That evening, while Hester reads alchemy texts on her patio, Imogene arrives with a chart of alchemical correspondences, claiming overlap between elements (quicksilver could substitute for wine, stone for salt). Their discussion is interrupted when Falada emerges from the woods, his headless body moving like a crushed spider. The geese attack him, giving Hester and Imogene time to flee inside. They barricade the door with a dresser as Falada smashes through the glass, then retreats. Hester sends for Richard.

Cordelia, locked down with the rest of the household under a fabricated rabies story, suffers a nightmare in which Falada's burned skull taunts her, suggesting that perhaps it has been him, not Penelope, speaking silently in her mind, and that she always tells him her secrets. Alice comforts her, and Cordelia tries to convince herself the dream was meaningless.

The next morning, Hester and Imogene report progress: they understand the alchemical typing system and confirm that someone of quicksilver-nature could substitute for wine, but no text explains how to identify a person's type. Richard reports that Falada attacked a storage shed overnight, smashing its contents. Cordelia begins searching books on alchemy. Late that evening, Richard returns with grim news: the head gamekeeper, sent to track Falada, has been found trampled to death at the edge of the woods.