Vyr remembers Cada'Vercia, the Umtheran City of the Dead, where Ryphus presides over Laritha's funeral and her body is taken away as a final gift of flesh. Imra leads the Blades of Nas through their rites, while Vyr's uncle quietly teaches her that Umtheras represents balance rather than indiscriminate killing. In the present, Father Patches clarifies the bargain he offers Whisper as the Hidden Father: if Whisper reaches the mainland and returns with the Heart of the Chain, Gram will be released from prison, and she will remain out of the Drowned Cell while he tries. Whisper accepts, gives Father Patches the recovered Stalker coin as a down payment for Lily and Madame Iris's protection, and receives a perfectly balanced black-etched dagger marking the Hidden Father's favor. Patches also warns him to watch Ernan.

At the East Wharf, Zandra forces Flagle Shoeflam to let the waiting refugees aboard before the Lion's token arrives. Torin rides toward the harbor but is confronted by Alderian Titus within a bank of living darkness. Titus declares that Torin may not die until the Ithelion is gone, threatens to corrupt Gavra through fear, and claims that fear weakens Torin's hold over him. Torin escapes into the dawn, presents the Lion's medallion to Flagle, and reunites with the others. Because the small vessel can carry only thirty-one people, Snake Eye Joe selects seventeen Dread Stalkers to sail with the companions, Zandra, her two guards, Aggie, and Mate. Micah and the remaining pirates stay in Gavra with Madame Iris, while Micah accepts Whisper's six horses for sale and promises to deliver the proceeds to Father Patches. The company takes possession of El Jon 2, renames her Lily's Song, and departs for the Shattered Isles.

During the seven-day crossing, Normandy and Zandra exchange hidden identities: he admits he is Francis Felrick, and she reveals that her personal name is Cecil while Xandra is the name under which she was once worshiped. Cecil seeks the Ithelion to cure a beloved woman whose soul darkened after an expedition, and she fears that her own fading power and her guards' devotion to Azeron may not survive Tyve. Torin's recovered artifacts expose deeper truths. The ouroboros connects the Arcanium to Yore and Gander, the mimic's core proves to be a fist-sized black glint that Rue takes into safekeeping, and the Tomorrow doll restores the party's emotional recognition of Torin before showing them a vanished Veyan tower rising from the sea. Torin identifies the Ithelion as a lake of pure light and glints as its mineral byproduct. Aggie hears the Tangled One's song, Helena's light vial gives her a memory of Stefon in Tel'Dorath, Brill asks Th'Marck to watch for betrayal, and Whisper gives his mother's key to Ernan after learning of Ernan's chain-shaped scars and lost childhood. The voyage ends at a burning settlement in the Shattered Isles, while far away an armored executioner tears a victim apart before thousands chant that the Chain grows strong one link at a time.