The travelers reach the base of Ephthalas after two days of exhausted silence and discover Phineas Moon camping beneath the approaching Sarexian Eclipse. His pale blue skin comes from generations lived beneath the Lighthouse of Piln, and his enormous panthex watches from the rocks above. Phineas warns that the eclipse weakens the veil between worlds, permits the group to share his fire, and recommends the summit of Ephthalas as the best place to witness what is coming. During the night, Whisper experiences a memory of an earlier visit to the Reef. He carries messages through the prison for Connor Fagen, bribes the cook Thorig Billdigger to feed Graham, speaks with Connor's protector Gavel, and finally finds his grandmother waiting in the lower cells. Before the memory can reveal their conversation, Whisper awakens at the camp.

After Phineas departs alone, Helena and Vyr discover a small blue creature stealing from the party. The creature calls himself Th'Marck and claims that he has guarded Rue's box since it was made, although he cannot remember who made it or what it contained. When Rue opens the empty box, Th'Marck concludes that Rue is what escaped and appoints himself Rue's protector. He recoils from pure glint as if it burns him. With the eclipse only hours away, the party follows a hidden ceremonial stairway up Ephthalas while Aggie remains below with Odo and Th'Marck. As Sarexis covers the sun and Lunaris, the Ithelion and the Lighthouse of Piln go dark, the Abyssal Falls ignite with black stars, and purple light reveals an ancient stone door deep within the summit.

The door bears a tree surrounded by the sun and dark moon, with a crown carved into its trunk. Helena recites the Harbinger of Light prophecy, igniting a black flame that casts white shadows. When Rue touches the glowing stone, he sees a Veyan procession climbing the temple in an earlier age. An unseen voice remembers him as one of the last Vey and asks whether he chooses his companions. Rue accepts them despite their imperfections, and the voice names them chosen. It warns that the final gift of Solaris is dying beyond the sea and mountains, that an enemy wearing the face of friend and foe seeks the Aphelion, and that the sealed door will open only when they are ready. After the eclipse, Normandy, Bjorn, and Helena honor Aggie's parents at the summit, and the group descends to plan a journey toward Gavra. Elsewhere, the transformed Silas Palligref and two black-armored followers massacre a farming village. Silas then presses the Scepter of Astarius against a survivor and brings him under the same green-eyed control.