Torin remembers an ancient black-sand shore where glasslike ships and monsters assault the Vey before Gavra exists. He confronts Alderian Titus, who wields the Dark Scepter, destroys Veyan guards, and remains held near the coast by the distant light of the Ithelion before overcoming Torin. In the present, Zandra admits that hiding the party from the Stygian Seven is steadily exhausting her. Whisper says farewell to Madame Iris and Lily, gives Lily his valuable map of the Reef, and receives a kiss and a warning not to lose sight of what is before him. Normandy questions Matthias about Zandra and learns that she is a weak, fading god whose true name remains unknown. Madame Iris privately reveals to Brill that her real name is Irene, that she is among the last survivors of a powerful Gavran house, and that a political coup threatens the Blooming Petal and the Felricks. She suspects Wylas Velpa, Yore and Gander, or other civil houses and plans to retreat to property in Piln.

Torin, Whisper, Vyr, Normandy, Brill, and Ernan take six riding horses from Saddles and Sage, leaving a note promising payment, and return to the undercroft before sunrise. Normandy retrieves Tavros's Stalker coin with Mage Hand. Vyr grants a dying rust monster a quick death through Umtheras, the party destroys a mimic disguised as the missing treasure chest, and Vyr pulls a hard, flesh-covered mass from its remains. A plaque rat then erupts from the lower channel and drives them back to the surface. At the burned Arcanium, Brill remembers his initiation and the order's experiments with glister, but the party instead finds Wylas Velpa and Gavran guards inside the supposedly secret laboratory. Brill uses alchemical fire to cover the retreat. Most of the group escapes while an invisible Torin remains behind and hears Wylas order the site burned again so that no evidence or witnesses survive.

Torin climbs the ruined tower alone. He finds research tracking plague outbreaks across Scarsden with the Iron Chain repeatedly circled, opens Ceptholda's sealed chamber by applying his crystalline fragment to its light-responsive door, and discovers her burned body. He takes an ouroboros necklace, a purple gilded book, damaged research notes, and an ancient blue-skinned doll hidden behind a painting. Touching the doll shows him a loving memory in which it is named Tomorrow. While Torin leaves separately for the wharf, the others stop at the Church of Tides so Whisper can bid farewell to his grandfather, Father Patches. Vyr's shadow changes the water flowing from Eth's statue to black, and she bottles a vial. Father Patches then reveals himself to Whisper as the Hidden Father, warns that a powerful influence linked to the Chain is corrosive and addictive, and gives Whisper a secret command to find and kill a man whose identity is not clear in the surviving account.