Light floods the stasis chamber where Helena is being held. She hears panicked voices trying to get her back to sleep. When she wakes again, the voices are discussing other prisoners and the High Necromancer. She loses and regains consciousness several more times. Finally, Helena is greeted by unfamiliar people informing her that she “should be dead” (9). Suddenly she remembers being captured near the Alchemy Tower. She starts remembering the events of the recent war, too. She realizes many of the dead were reanimated and turned into necrothralls, or animated corpses. She remembers some of her friends dying. She struggles to address the vivimancer woman, or healer, before her. She remembers that she was part of the Resistance and loyal to Luc Holdfast and his kin—a lead family in the Resistance—but doesn’t know why she is in captivity.

The woman reveals that Luc is dead and that all of the Undying are the High Necromancer’s followers now. A devastated Helena can’t believe she’d forget Luc dying. She remembers studying alchemy in Paladia—this country—but can’t feel her resonance, or power, now.

Grace, an old Resistance comrade, finds Helena and tells her about the end of the war. Everyone in the Order of the Eternal Flame—the rebel group opposing the High Necromancer—is dead except Helena. The Undying, under the command of the anonymous High Reeve, have taken over. Helena can’t believe what she’s hearing. Then she remembers that the High Necromancer is someone named Morrough and recalls watching him kill Luc. She and Luc were friends since Helena left her home in Etras to study at the Alchemy Institute in Paladia.

The woman vivimancer, Doctor Irmgard Stroud, brings Helena to Morrough. He informs Helena that he needs her memories. Helena doesn’t understand why and can remember little from the past. Then a man named Shiseo joins them, and the group discusses how to “transmute a healer’s mind” (26). (Helena is a healer.) Morrough is upset by Helena’s current condition and tortures Helena’s overseer, Mandl, for taking matters into her own hands. The group then realizes that Helena’s ability to survive such adverse conditions is a sign of her marked resonance. They wonder about the possibilities of altering the mind and soul, speculating that the Order of the Eternal Flame had an animancer—or person who could revive the dead—to help Helena shield her memories from them.

Helena is taken back to Central, the prison where she’s been held. On the way, she sees the city and remembers some of the Necromancy War. She wants to escape but realizes she has to discover what’s really going on for Luc’s sake. She swore loyalty to him.

Dr. Stroud interrogates Helena. Helena does her best to protect her memories while extracting information from Stroud that she otherwise can’t remember. She divines that the Resistance regarded the war as a struggle between good and evil. Meanwhile, squabbles emerged between the various alchemy guilds. A Guild Assembly formed to combat the religious elites; led by Artemon Bennet, this group planned to form a New Paladia where magic would be regarded as science and not sin. Morrough emerged amid this political turmoil and gained followers by promising them immortality. The major disagreements surrounded the use of magic, particularly as it pertained to the living and dead.

Jan Crowther visits Helena with Dr. Stroud. Helena is relieved to see Jan, a member of the Eternal Flame Council, until she realizes he isn’t really Jan but an Undying wearing Jan’s corpse. The figures make plans to transfer Helena elsewhere.

Helena travels to an undisclosed location. On the way, she muses on all she’s learned about her circumstances and tries formulating an escape plan. She arrives at a manor called Spirefell, where a slight woman named Aurelia greets her. Inside, Helena meets Aurelia’s husband, Kaine Ferron, whom she recognizes. The couple gets into an argument about Helena staying at Spirefell.

Alone, Kaine interrogates Helena using intense resonance. He is trying to access her memories. She blocks her mind out of loyalty to Luc and the Resistance. She deduces that Kaine is the High Reeve and Morrough’s secret weapon.

Helena explores her new room. Feeling lonely, she reminds herself that she must survive. She muses on her past interactions with Kaine. He was her classmate and academic rival at the Institute. She swears to beat him now as she did in school.

The next day, Helena creeps out of her room and discovers a door to a dark tunnel. She tries entering, but the darkness reminds her of the stasis tank. She remembers that she is a healer and tries summoning memories from before her captivity. Aurelia finds her and scolds her for leaving her room. She leads Helena to another room to wait for Kaine. Helena sneaks into Kaine’s adjoining study and discovers a collection of curious papers. Kaine’s appearance interrupts her snooping.

Kaine starts a transference session, using his resonance to access Helena’s mind, memories, and soul. Helena fights back, upsetting Kaine. Throughout the session, various images and memories appear in her mind, many of which upset her. Kaine continues these sessions over the following days.

Then one day, Aurelia gives Helena new clothes per Kaine’s instructions. All the dresses are red, a color Aurelia knows upsets Helena. Thereafter, Kaine lets Helena take daily walks in the courtyard. She tries concocting an escape plan but wonders if it would be better to die by suicide. She doesn’t believe the soul and body should be separated—which is what Kaine might do to her; she resolves to do anything to keep him from this goal.

Helena gains access to a newspaper, shocked to discover that the year is 1788. Her last memory is from 1786, meaning she’s been in captivity for over a year and has little memory of it. After reading an article about the Ferrons, Helena tries to make sense of why the High Necromancer values Kaine so much. She reads about Novis and Hevgoss, countries neighboring Paladia, the Guild Assembly’s recent concerns, and a program run by Dr. Stroud, Central’s science and alchemy chairperson. Helena understands that this is a breeding program, promising economic rewards to struggling alchemists to steal and channel their powers.

Over the following days, Kaine keeps visiting and working with Helena. She is afraid of him but also feels something familiar between them and in the space. He softens slightly when she alludes to her time in the stasis tank.

Helena gets sick from walking in the rain. Kaine; his father, Atreus Ferron; and Dr. Stroud tend to her, desperate to keep her alive and well for Morrough. After Atreus and Dr. Stroud leave, Helena is overcome by sadness remembering Luc. She and Kaine talk. He tries to convince her that she is mistaken about who the Holdfasts really were, insisting that they used her and treated her more like a pet than a person. Helena refuses to listen, insisting that Luc and his aunt, Ilva Holdfast, were her friends.

Helena is overcome by an intense memory of spending time with Luc. She knows that Kaine sees the memory, but she doubts it’s useful to him. She still can’t make sense of what he wants. She reflects on her relationship with Luc. He and his family all had pyromancy powers. They could transform metals into other metals—a gift given them by the god Sol. Orion Holdfast founded the Institute so they could teach their alchemical skills to others. Orion squabbled with Cetus—the alleged first alchemist in the North—over these teachings and traditions. Orion ultimately trumped Cetus.

Over the following days, Helena continues creeping around Spirefell in search of answers. She tries accessing more of her buried memories to understand her circumstances, too. This is particularly hard when she is doing sessions with Kaine. Over time, he softens to Helena which confuses her. She is unsure what sort of magic he has. She tries to guess but can’t divine what’s different about him. His silver hair, slight build, and cold demeanor mystify her. One day, she notices his strange ring. It feels familiar, but she doesn’t understand its utility.

Helena has a seizure during another transference session with Kaine. When she wakes up, Kaine seems more familiar, and she demands to know who he is. That night, Helena takes a walk in the cold. Kaine shepherds her inside, warning her she’ll get sick. She can’t understand the gesture. In the morning, she discovers that he’s left her a new pair of boots.