Celene flashes back to Augustin, seven weeks after Voss’s retreat. She and Maryn are “guests” in the Château Impérial. They watch thousands adore Dior. Celene questions Voss’s withdrawal; Maryn speculates it was due to Dior’s new power, as Voss wants to capture the Grail alive.

Maryn instructs Celene that when Dior comes for counsel, she must steer her only toward the throne. She reveals she knows Celene killed Wulfric but praises her as a worthy successor. Maryn confesses centuries of misery trapped in a child’s form. The scene ends as Dior emerges from the cathedral to rapturous cheers.

In the present, Celene admits the wine-laced blood has made her drunk. Her story continues at a banquet in Augustin. A nervous, intoxicated Dior struggles to confront Empress Isabella. Goaded by Prince Philippe, Dior announces that to restore the sun, she must be crowned Empress on Maidsfeast.

The court, including Pontifex Gascoigne, erupts in laughter. Isabella dismisses the demand. Reyne steps in with a counter-proposal: political marriage between Dior and Philippe, uniting the Redeemer’s bloodline with House Augustin. The court begins to consider seriously, but Dior flees the hall.

Celene’s moth observes Dior confronting Reyne in her chambers. Dior accuses Reyne of betrayal for proposing the marriage without discussion. Reyne defends it as necessary strategy.

A distraught Dior pleads for a kiss. Reyne refuses, citing social and religious taboos, especially their possible half-sisterhood. Explaining potential scandal, she uses the word “unnatural,” to describe their bond which Dior interprets as Reyne’s true feelings about her. Heartbroken, Dior calls Reyne a coward and orders her to leave.

A drunk, furious Dior goes to Celene’s quarters. She confronts the guards, and Captain Moulin allows her passage in recognition of her saving his son. Dior vents about the marriage and the fight.

Celene offers counsel, suggesting the marriage is a small price to pay for their mission and remarking that love is the province of fools. She urges Dior to stop relying on others like Gabriel. Her advice connects, and Dior asks Celene to finish the story of her past. Celene agrees.

Celene recounts the end of her time in San Yves. After fleeing the ball, she returned to find Aleks horrifically burned. As a mob stormed their priory, they fled. A priest used a silver holy wheel to incapacitate Wulfric, allowing archers to set him and Aleks ablaze. Aleks died; Percival was last seen burning and cornered by soldiers, though Celene’s thoughts were only for Aleks and Wulfric. Wulfric escaped as a swarm of moths, promising to reveal the final mystery of their faith later.

Instead of escaping, Celene hid for three days before returning to Laurent. He professed his love, but Wulfric appeared, having tracked her. Enraged by her deceit in continuing to see Laurent, which he blamed for the others’ deaths, Wulfric attacked Celene. Laurent tried to intervene and was mortally wounded. Celene fought Wulfric and, in a desperate struggle, consumed his blood and the hundreds of souls within him, killing him. She healed Laurent with her new potent blood, but when he touched her unmasked, monstrous face, he screamed in horror. His cries alerted soldiers, forcing Celene to flee, now the last of her order, known from hereon as the Last Liathe.

Prince Philippe seeks Dior for a private walk. He speaks candidly about his duties as a “second son” who never expected to inherit the kingdom. Dior shows genuine empathy for the loss of Phillipe’s father, surprising and moving him.

He tells her honestly that a marriage between them would be a union of compromise as his heart belongs to another. He senses Dior is in love with someone else too. In the industrial heart of the city, Philippe formally proposes. Seeing it as the only path forward, Dior accepts.

Maryn is elated by the betrothal. That night, she and Celene fly as moths to a secret meeting. They meet Phoebe, and Celene is horrified to learn Maryn has secretly held her in thralldom for months.

Phoebe produces Ashdrinker, explaining she stole it because Gabriel refused to abandon the path of vengeance for Voss. Maryn reveals Gabriel’s fate at San Maximille and his allegiance to Fabién in return of Patience. 

Phoebe warns the duo that the sentient Ashdrinker, whose mind is “scattered,” might reveal the fact that she was stolen to Dior. To prevent this, Maryn orders Celene to shatter the sword’s mind. Though the blade begs for mercy, a weeping Celene smashes it against a rock until its consciousness is broken.

The next morning, Phoebe presents the broken Ashdrinker to Dior, claiming Gabriel fought valiantly but the sword broke against Fabién’s iron skin and Gabriel surrendered to be with his daughter. Dior is devastated by the perceived betrayal, screaming that Gabriel broke his promise to always guide her. 

After the others depart, Reyne stays to comfort Dior. In grief, Dior kisses Reyne, who briefly returns it before pulling away. Reyne tries to offer hope, but Dior pushes her away. Reyne leaves heartbroken, telling Dior one last time that she loves her.

Weeks pass. The night before the wedding, Reyne meets her sister, Duchess Yvaine de La Fontaine. After they grieve for their family, Reyne mentions Phoebe’s claim about her parentage. Yvaine reveals the truth: Reyne’s father was not a duskdancer but Laerd Ryan á Sadhbh, an Ossian lord their mother had an affair with. Reyne was sent away to hide the scandal.

Realizing she and Dior are not sisters, an overjoyed Reyne runs to find her beloved. Racing through corridors, she catches a glimpse of a man with silver hands—Gabriel de León—disappearing into a darkened hallway.

In her moth-form, Celene, sees Gabriel and telepathically warns Reyne not to follow him till she has reinforcements. Reyne ignores the warning and follows Gabriel into a dining hall. Gabriel ambushes her, insists he is not a traitor and tries to warn them about Maryn. Before he can explain, Maryn arrives and attacks. Immune to her power due to Dior’s blood, Gabriel severs her hand at the wrist and slices her throat.

Celene arrives and engages Gabriel. As Reyne calls for the guards, Gabriel defeats Celene but hesitates from killing her. Maryn recovers and murders Reyne by impaling her through the heart. She slaughters the arriving guards, and lifting Gabriel’s dropped sword, plunges it into Reyne’s breast to frame him. Horrified, Gabriel flees but is captured. Maryn instructs Celene on the new story: Gabriel killed everyone in a desperate attempt to abduct Dior.

Hours later, Celene and Maryn give their false testimony. Dior summons Celene to the city morgue, standing enraged over Reyne’s body. Celene recounts the fabricated account.

Dior demands to see Gabriel. In the dungeons, she confronts the beaten, chained silversaint, accusing him of murdering Reyne. He denies it, but she refuses to listen. She attacks him until Phoebe restrains her. Dior orders Gabriel handed to the Inquisition for torture.

Maryn confirms her plan to have the thralled Phoebe assassinate Gabriel in the Tower of Tears. Wracked with doubt, Celene retreats into her mind and confronts Wulfric’s consciousness for answers. She resolves to stop the wedding and tell Dior the truth, but Wulfric warns Celene that Maryn will destroy her first. Threatening to burn all the souls inside her, Celene forces Wulfric to reveal the Esani’s final mystery: Their true goal is not to end daysdeath, but to end the world itself. 

The narrative shifts back to the present as Jean-François’s interrogation is interrupted by Dario to tell him that Margot has returned with the captured Gabriel. As Jean-Francois leaves Celene, she too tells him to use wisely the “forever” granted by her brother.

In the throne room, Jean-François finds a horrifically maimed Gabriel, one his eyes gone, at Margot’s feet. Also present is Kariim Ilon of the Blood Ilon, Priori of Whispers. Kestrel arrives and demands Gabriel’s immediate execution. Draigann also arrives. After a tense negotiation, they agree to postpone his death until a “spectacular” execution that evening. Margot dismisses Jean-François with an ultimatum: finish Celene’s story by dusk, or die screaming beside her and Gabriel.