During Ana’s five-day healing sleep, Din visits the medikker’s bay every morning, gathers her post, and spends the rest of each day answering repeated questions from Apoth, Treasury, and Legion officials about everything that happened in Yarrowdale. From these exchanges and from what he sees in the city, Din learns that Pyktis’s death has shattered Yarrow: rival heirs are claiming the throne, others are fleeing, and naukari are pouring toward the Empire. When Din meets the exhausted Prificto Kardas in a sotbar, Kardas complains that the Empire may soon be transporting whole families instead of reagents, while Din suspects the missing Malo is secretly helping naukari escape.

On the fourth day, Din finds a letter addressed to him from the Usini Lending Group, but instead of demanding payment it announces the company’s temporary suspension during an Iudex corruption investigation. Remembering Ana’s earlier comments about his debts, Din realizes she must have helped bring this about by directing official attention toward Usini. Because Ana has removed the financial obstacle that might have forced his decision, Din understands that she wants his answer about staying with her to be freely chosen.

On the sixth morning, Malo appears outside the medikker’s bay looking scratched, thin, and quietly victorious. She evasively denies interfering in Yarrow while strongly implying that she has spent her leave guiding naukari to freedom as the kingdom collapses. Malo also brings news that the massive hydricyst is due to arrive that day, but when Din goes inside to check on Ana, a medikker tells him Ana has already forced an attendant to take her away, claiming Din would know someone who could find her. Din immediately asks Malo to track Ana by scent.

Malo leads Din to a rocky overlook above the sea, where Ana sits beneath a tree in her old black dress, eyes bound, listening toward the horizon. After sending Malo up the cliffs for privacy, Ana asks about her post and then lightly admits that although she did nothing directly to Usini, she did send a few letters that nudged an existing Iudex inquiry forward. Ana explains that she promised Din two revelations and wanted his choice to be made without constraint. As Din describes the ocean, Ana reflects on how the vastness of the world makes all people small, and she turns from that thought to kings, saying the Empire must beware anyone blessed in body or mind who might mistake such gifts for royal nature.

Ana says the Empire needs a watchman to remember that even extraordinary people remain human, and therefore fallible, petty, and predictable. Din stops her indirection and tells Ana plainly that he will not return east; he will stay with her and continue this work because he wants to help preserve an Empire worth defending. Thinking of Kepheus and what service truly means, Din accepts the path before him, while also suspecting Ana is asking him to watch over her in light of the dangerous secret he has guessed about her. Ana thanks him, takes his hand, and says she will keep him close. She then suggests Malo could become an assistant to an investigator in violent Ashradel. When Malo finally shouts that the hydricyst is coming, Din sees the immense vessel appear on the horizon and begins describing it to Ana as a sign of the Empire’s next age.