Over the weeks following, Crowther becomes increasingly frustrated with Kaine’s lack of information. Helena continues meeting with him, glad to be spending more time together again. Kaine opens up to Helena more, too, particularly about his mother. They also continue their animancy training, and he again forces her to confront how the Resistance is using her for her powers, draining her. He shows her how to pull the reanimation out of necrothralls and reveals that he knows she is a vivimancer—although he knew she is a healer, she had hidden her vivimancy from him. During one session, Helena gets upset with Kaine for being too aggressive, reiterating that she isn’t like him.

As the war progresses, the Resistance seeks out weaponry to fight the Undying. Kaine becomes increasingly worried that Helena doesn’t have the appropriate weaponry for herself. They get into another disagreement. Helena wants to satisfy Crother, but she knows she’ll never be able to defeat Kaine. When she meets with Crowther and Ilva again, they scold her for abusing her position and compromising herself by getting too close to Kaine.

Helena asks Shiseo for help testing her resonance so that she can decide which alloy would be appropriate for her weapons. He suggests nickel-titanium but comments on her high abilities with many metals. She tells him that she is originally from Etras, an island kingdom to the south. Her father, who was a surgeon there, brought her to Paladia because alchemy was rare in Etras and he wanted her to train at the Tower.

Meanwhile, Helena becomes increasingly isolated. She isn’t allowed to use the lab anymore. She relies on her meetings with Kaine, who is still combat training her. She gave him a slip of paper with her alloy listed on it, but he hasn’t mentioned her weapons since.

Then one day, the attack alarm sounds at the Tower: During an ambush, Lila was captured, and Luc is devastated. It is clear to everyone that he and Lila are romantically involved. They bring the wounded into the hospital, terrified they’ve been poisoned with lumithium. Lila is finally rescued and brought to the hospital. Helena realizes that she will die if Helena doesn’t give her some of her vitality, and she doesn’t hesitate. She collapses with the effort, knowing that she’s given too much, and Pace sedates her.

Helena speaks to Luc at Lila’s beside, and he talks about the horrors of war. Ilva and Crowther call a meeting of the Council of Five after Lila’s rescue. They accuse Luc of abandoning his troops to save Lila, reminding him he is a “symbol of hope and light” for the Resistance (512). 

Helena continues working with Shiseo, who knows about metals that haven’t been identified in Paladia because he is from the East. They study the compounds that they found in Vanya’s body, and he is disturbed by what he sees. He tells her that it is mo’lian’shi, a metal that the Emperor there possesses that has the power to make other metals inert, meaning that it can suppress or remove resonance. He suspects that Morrough has somehow gotten it from the Emperor.

Helena checks in with Kaine, updating him on everything that’s happened. They discuss the war, and Helena interrogates his reasons for helping the Resistance. He dismisses the question but promises to stay alive for her.

The war slowed down in the winter, and Helena focuses on her relationship with Kaine; he is sometimes badly injured when they meet, and she heals him. When he collapses one night, she performs an alchemical surgery to extract dangerous alloys of the array from his body. She is desperate to save his life even when she feels frustrated with him. They have conversations about the history of his family, the Guild Assembly, and the Undying. When she defends Luc, he reminds her of how the Resistance uses her and how much Luc would hate her if he knew what she was doing.

When she returns to the Tower, she gives Crowther the shards of alloy that she pulled from Kaine’s body. As a solstice gift, Helena gives Kaine a medical kit with the medicines she has been working on. Kaine gives Helena a new set of nickel-titanium daggers. He insists she wear them whenever they meet up.

In their next meeting, Ilva asks Helena about what she and Shiseo are working on. She tells Ilva about the alloy they’ve discovered, which they call nullium, and its ability to suppress resonance. They are using the shards Helena extracted from Kaine for their tests. Ilva also pressures Helena to divine how Morrough is still alive and what his secret weapon actually is. She reveals that she knows Morrough has been experimenting on Kaine and that she and Crowther wanted Helena to let him die. Helena reveals that she used the liquid metal inside the sunstone to save Kaine, and Ilva is shocked. She reveals that the substance is actually the mythological Stone of the Heavens. She reveals that it wasn’t a gift from Sol to Orion upon winning the Necromancy War; Orion got the substance from the necromancer that he defeated. Helena understands that Ilva is responsible for the mythology, thinking that people need to believe in it. Helena begins to see how hollow the Faith is.

Ilva reveals that the Stone gives people the power to access others’ souls. It was once loyal to the Necromancer and let him perform alchemical miracles. He used his power to win followers but then killed and reanimated them—extracting their souls and compacting them into the stone. During the battle with Orion, the Stone’s loyalty changed to Orion. Without the Stone, no one can win the war. Luc doesn’t know the truth and thinks he can win the war alone. In reality, he has no chance.

Helena is furious with these lies and makes a deal with Ilva. She promises to fully secure Kaine’s loyalty, and Ilva gives her one month to prove it.

Helena goes to a solstice party at Solis, the Bayard’s estate. Helena is shocked to hear everyone talking about the end of the war. Many people also allude to Helena having been sick—a rumor Ilva and Crowther spread to discredit her should she try revealing their plans. Luc finds Helena. He expresses his affection for her and urges her to spend the evening with him and their friends. He thinks their relationships will be especially important when the war is over. 

Frustrated and overwhelmed, Helena insists they can’t be friends anymore as she isn’t the girl she used to be. She dismisses herself. Overwhelmed by emotion, Helena races to Kaine’s side. He comforts her but warns her about blowing his cover and endangering herself.

Kaine continues combat training Helena. During one session, Helena is surprised by Kaine’s good mood. Their sparring leads to a heated conversation and a passionate embrace. Helena is overcome with desire, and they have sex. Lying in his arms afterwards, Helena feels guilty. She has accomplished her mission of seducing Kaine but worries about using him. Their post-coital conversation turns to Kaine’s mother, the pain he’s suffered, and his frustration with his own cold-heartedness. He reveals that Morrough punished his father by imprisoning and torturing his mother—that was the reason for the cage at Spirefell. He made Kaine, who was a child, watch. He sobs, and Helena expresses her grief on his behalf but also recognizes that she can use their new connection to prove his worth to the Resistance.

When he stops crying, Kaine becomes distant again. She asks him why he is working for the Eternal Flame and why he continues to climb the ranks of the Undying. Helena and Kaine discuss their feelings for each other and what Crowther wants from Kaine. She tells him that Crowther wants him bound to Helena, and he points out that he will just be serving a new master.

Helena reports to Crowther that Kaine is being honest about working for the Eternal Flame to get revenge on Morrough for his mother’s torture and death. She informs him that Kaine is now loyal to their cause and will do anything Crowther asks. Crowther expresses surprised excitement. He reveals that like her, he was a scholarship student, and he understands how the Holdfasts are using her because they used him in the same way.

The next time she meets Kaine, Crowther comes with her. The hatred between the men is palpable. They ask her to wait outside for Crowther as they discuss the terms of a new deal between Kaine and the Resistance. When Crowther comes out of the room, he congratulates her on a job well done.

The Resistance loses control of some important parts of Paladia during the winter. Crowther arranges for Helena to see Kaine only once a week. They continue training, but Kaine is distant. After one session, Helena returns to the Tower after meeting Kaine and learns that Lila and Soren are badly wounded and Luc is missing. Helena does everything in her power to heal them while waiting for news of Luc. She finds nullium shrapnel in Lila’s body and realizes that the Undying are developing a new weapon.

No one is sure why the Undying haven’t revealed that Luc is in their custody. Soren gets a group together to locate the Undying’s prison and rescue Luc, but he doesn’t tell the leadership about the plan. Helena, Jan, Soren, and Purnell are among those placed on the mission. Helena sends Shiseo to the Outpost to leave a message for Kaine with the group’s plan.

Helena and her companions head out in search of the prison, led by Sofie Purnell, who knows the location. They work their way into the prison and find a massive guard outside Luc’s door. He reveals that he is Atreus—Kaine’s father, who was presumed dead—in the body. Inside the room, Luc looks ravaged, and Helena desperately tries to free him. 

As they leave the prison, Helena’s ring burns. The companions work together to escape, but they are overwhelmed with necrothralls. Soren is killed, and Helena brings him back to life, using necromancy, because Soren made her promise she would. Everyone in the group is disgusted by what they see as Helena taking advantage of Soren, and Luc can’t even look at her. Helena is struck in the chest by an ax, and Sofie Purnell is killed. Kaine eventually appears and comes to Helena and her friends’ aid. She marvels at his power. He reluctantly saves the whole group.

She instructs him on how to heal her chest wound, and they discuss what happened. Helena realizes he is afraid of losing her because of what happened to Enid Ferron. They express their affection for each other and kiss. He reveals that the deal he made with Crowther is that he continues to work with the Resistance, and in exchange, she stays alive.

As the group regains consciousness, Helena claims that she got everyone to safety on her own. Sebastian is the first awake, and he says that he knows she reanimated Soren, and he knows that Soren asked her to do it. The group races to escape with a dying Luc. 

Back at headquarters, Luc’s condition only worsens. He raves whenever he sees Helena, telling her to get “him” out. One day, he confronts her, saying that he knows she used necromancy on Soren. She fears he’ll never forgive her. Her mind is suddenly overcome by flashes of memories; she realizes Soren’s memories went into her when she tried reanimating him. She goes to Kaine, who explains this can happen with necromancy sometimes. They have a conversation about what they want and how they feel about each other. Then they kiss and have sex. Afterwards, Kaine reminds Helena that she deserves happiness and love.