The towering Rusticulum advances toward Atherin's cottage while repeating the number seven. Whisper awakens the party and helps Atherin and Aronin lead the seven children into the mountains, while Helena draws the warrior away with her magically illuminated bow. The Rusticulum fires barbed chains, carries greatswords beneath its massive armor, and moves through the forest without slowing. Helena severs one of its chains, but another pierces Bjorn and briefly subjugates him, forcing him to attack Whisper until he tears himself free. Vyr's shadow blade, Helena's arrows, Normandy's fire, lightning, and force magic, Bjorn's Helvegen, Whisper's enchanted dagger, and Torrin's moonlight subject it to a devastating collective assault. The shattered helmet reveals a burned and writhing human body, but ancient red runes reignite across the armor and Vyr senses that it is nowhere near death. A distant horn sounds, drawing the Rusticulum west. It counts backward to one as its red light fades and it marches away. The Harbingers recover a broken length of chain covered with fingernail scratches, reunite with Aronin and the children in a mountain cave, and shelter beneath Torrin's protective dome. They decide to bring Atherin and the children through Beklar to the Twilight Temple.

The following morning, the refugees gather supplies and begin the return journey. The Harbingers consider retrieving the two children who remained in the village, so Bjorn and Torrin approach while Helena watches from the forest. They find the windmill collapsed and smoldering, black-robed Chain cultists drained of blood, and the Rusticulum kneeling among the dead. Two pale figures dressed entirely in white stand over it. Through magical translation, Torrin hears one condemn the Chain for entering their lands and spilling their people's blood. The speaker raises the Rusticulum into the air and drains it until blood cascades from its armor and it falls lifeless. Torrin places Bjorn into a deathlike trance and turns invisible, while Helena retreats into the trees. There she encounters a blind, gray, jackal-like creature that hunts by sound and moves on all fours. A pale man with an eye-shaped facial marking treats the beast as a favored hound and dismisses Bjorn because his blood smells rancid. Helena slips through a cottage window, only to find the mother inside dead and the children missing.

Selina, a pale woman in white, finds Helena in the cottage and recognizes her as one of the shadow folk from a hidden world. Selina claims that their peoples share an ancestry and attempts to lull Helena to sleep before Acuras, the pale man from outside, joins them. The pair radiate tremendous power and struggle openly against their hunger for Helena's blood. They offer to take her to Keph as an honored guest so they can question her, promising that she will later be released. Helena tries to negotiate for the safety of her companions and offers a rare bottle of wine, which raises her standing in their eyes but does not satisfy their hunger. When Acuras makes clear that the invitation will be offered only once, Helena agrees to accompany them if they immediately leave the village. She places her hand in his, and the two vanish into shadow. The remaining Harbingers know that their missing companion has been taken toward Keph.