After the Harbingers leave Keph, the surviving Knights of Ithelias begin turning the awakened citadel into a defensible home. Gavron appoints Jespin, Brindis Sacfis, Mallkin, Cass, Sir Clint of the East Ward, and Tarra Matthews to a scouting party while the remaining knights train civilians, repair the keep, and prepare signals for the Chain's approach. Rufus Wimple equips the scouts, but their attempt to locate water at Aurorius Falls reveals that the waterfall lies far deeper within the Sheer Peaks than expected. Back at Keph, Brindis shares Dragon's Milk and music with the displaced townspeople, while Tarra interviews the imprisoned Blood Sorcerers and concludes that four may be innocent or unaware of what happened to them.

The next morning, the knights descend several hundred feet into Keph's black reservoir using an unstable pulley platform. They discover clear water filled with small fish, a distant island, a vast sleeping serpent, and a cavern containing humanoid remains, a coral-covered anchor, and a nameless amphibious man whom they call Fred. He claims that the Tangled One cursed him after he sought immortality and promises treasure within a narrow tunnel. Tarra enters despite suspecting a trap and looks into a rippling silver mirror, which transfers the man's curse to her and restores his human body. The mirror cracks during the ensuing struggle, but the freed man claims that killing the Tangled One can restore Tarra. Her new body allows her to swim to the island, where she finds a sealed runic doorway, while her improvised song keeps the serpent asleep. The knights take the Tangled One's anchor and prepare to leave the reservoir with the former prisoner.

Elsewhere, Snake Eye Joe, Trash King, Soupie, Soggy Marion Dan, Finneas Fuego Fontana, Philip McCoy, Old Bloody Gums, and Snoop Dolphin continue through the Lavender Forest in search of the kidnapped Zandra. They discover a Silver Grove containing four silver trees with golden apples and a stone willow carved with an unreadable doorway. Magda Navaa emerges and opens the tree into a green portal leading unimaginably far away, but warns that Zandra is not beyond it. Finneas tests the portal with a finger, cannot withdraw it, and loses the finger when Soupie cuts it free. Magda treats the wound, directs the pirates west, and remarks that the light strangely follows them. After Soggy Marion Dan plucks an apple that turns to dust and briefly necrodes his hand, the Dread Stalkers reject the unknown gateway, accept Trash King's offer to explore it alone only long enough to stop him, and continue after Zandra as the stone tree seals behind them.