At the Southern Eye, the Harbingers prepare the Maelstrodomus for departure while refugee ships carrying Velpan forces continue to enter the harbor. Selendra Cassiandros acknowledges that Wylas may be gathering enough power to challenge her, and Aemon Toft admits that only fifteen local guards defend the island. A guard named Derek reports survivors on the northern coast, leading the Harbingers and Aemon to a wrecked Gavran galleon commanded by Rensselaer and roughly thirty surviving sailors and soldiers. They learn that Silas's possessed fleet sailed directly into the vortex and that ship after ship was destroyed until this crew turned back, lost most of its complement, and eventually wrecked upon the Southern Eye. Derek had known about the survivors for two days without reporting them. Before returning, the group discovers a twelve-foot figure sleeping beside a butchered cow and senses undead somewhere in the nearby water, but leaves both mysteries undisturbed.

When the Harbingers return to the keep, they find Derek dead and Marquis Cassiandros murdered. Aronin says he arrived too late to stop Derek from repeatedly stabbing her, but killed the assassin during the attack. Helena speaks with Cassiandros's departing soul and hears that the past has caught her, that unseen figures are watching from the darkness, and that her final wish is for the Harbingers to protect her people. Mathias then draws Whisper into a private vision and offers to restore Cassiandros in exchange for Lily's soul. Whisper refuses to sacrifice her and offers his own soul instead, but Mathias leaves him with the warning that he should value it more. Derek's dead voice offers only broken references to his family, terrible speed and pain, and the sound of drowning. Outside, Velpan forces declare Wylas the rightful successor, while the Harbingers detain him and forge a supposed succession document naming Madame Iris as the person capable of opposing his claim.

The Harbingers escape the keep through its cellar with Wylas in shackles as sixty Velpan soldiers gather outside. At the Maelstrodomus, Whisper throws Wylas into the harbor, but he is pulled back aboard before he drowns. The group compels him to order his soldiers away from the gangplank and acknowledge their right to depart, then releases him on shore as he promises to rebuild his empire. The Maelstrodomus sails north, leaving Aemon, Rensselaer, the refugees, and Wylas's growing force behind. Ilk emerges from below deck, claims passage from a higher power, says the Black Worm hungers, and offers to dream the truths carried by objects the Harbingers encounter. As the ship approaches the vortex, golden strands descend from the darkness and dissolve into light. Helena opens Stefon's vial, which draws the strands inside and begins shining again with the distant radiance of the Ithelion.