On a March evening on a West Coast beach in Pacific City, Oregon, Lund builds a fire while he and Izzy keep a low profile. They have been drifting from place to place since the violence at the New York hotel auction, staying only until fear and suspicion push them to move again.

As they sit in silence, Izzy notices a lone figure down the beach watching them. The figure approaches, and Izzy realizes it is Cassie; the two women run to each other and embrace, stunned to be reunited.

By the fire, Cassie demands to know how she saw Izzy die. Izzy and Lund explain their best theory: Izzy had the Book of Illusion in her pocket during the shootout, and in panic she imagined a fatal gunshot, making others—including Cassie—see her as dead. Lund, wounded and playing dead, watched the gray-mist woman focus on Drummond, who vanished “like smoke,” before she left without taking notice of Izzy or the book.

Izzy describes fleeing the hotel with Lund and returning briefly to the apartment she had shared with Cassie before escaping by bus. Not knowing where Cassie had gone, Izzy repeatedly texted Cassie photos of doors at every stop so Cassie could track them. Cassie recounts being stranded ten years in the past, then admits that after the ballroom she fled into a kind of “nothingness,” returning only when she decided she wanted to come home.

When the talk turns to what comes next, Cassie says she does not want to spend her life running from the gray-mist woman, though she still does not know who she is. Lund offers to help Cassie with whatever she decides, and Izzy reinforces that Cassie is not alone.

Later, they discuss the Book of Illusion: Izzy and Lund buried it because it felt unsafe to keep. Cassie argues they may need it if illusions can fool the gray-mist woman, but Lund says it is a few days away and there are no nearby doorways to shortcut the trip. As the beach empties and the cold sets in, Izzy and Lund head back while Cassie stays behind to think, promising she will not disappear again.