Three days later, Grace waits for Stephen at her closed shop, flipping through an alchemical book while passing the time. When Stephen arrives, he looks tired from helping with flood cleanup and relief efforts in the city. Grace admits she is anxious about delivering the perfume personally to the Crown Prince. Stephen gently suggests the Prince finds her interesting, though Grace deflects, insisting perfumes are not that fascinating.

Their conversation turns to Stephen’s nature as a paladin. Grace asks if he runs amok, and Stephen confirms he is still prone to berserker “fits” but tries to avoid them. He has not had one in over a year. Grace apologizes for his loss of the Saint, and Stephen describes the experience in vivid detail: He compares the divine presence to a glass bottle of light within his chest that suddenly shattered, leaving the sense of broken glass inside him with every movement. Grace impulsively hugs him. The embrace quickly becomes charged, their bodies pressed together. Stephen’s hand slides to her waist, and Grace realizes she is intensely aroused. She looks up at him and sees the same desire reflected in his eyes. They are about to kiss when Marguerite’s footsteps on the stairs interrupt them.

Marguerite drags Grace upstairs to change into more formal attire for the scheduled audience with the Crown Prince. During the embrace, Grace is also aware of Stephen’s scent, which reminds her of gingerbread.

Ethan DuValier collects Grace, Marguerite, and Stephen in a carriage. Stephen rides outside the carriage in the groom’s position, which makes Grace uneasy because he is accompanying them as an ally, not a servant. Inside, DuValier maintains a stream of flattering conversation during the journey, while Grace stares out the window, distracted by thoughts of replicating scents and worrying whether Stephen is cold.

At the Crown Prince’s temporary lodgings, Stephen steps past DuValier to help Grace from the carriage and positions himself slightly behind her in a formal guard stance. DuValier suggests Stephen wait in the kitchens, but Stephen firmly states he goes where Grace goes, asserting that he has sworn to remain at her side. When Grace mentions her shoes pinch, both men offer assistance, creating an awkward standoff. Marguerite struggles to hide her amusement at the tension between them.

Inside, the Crown Prince reclines against pillows on a raised bed, giving him the appearance of a relaxed but watchful predator. Grace nervously approaches with her wooden box of perfume vials. The Crown Prince receives the perfume warmly, saying it will be the talk of Charlock. Grace expresses gratitude that he appreciates the fragrance itself. The audience concludes smoothly, and a court official discreetly gives Marguerite a pouch of payment as they leave.

DuValier asks Grace if he may call on her when he next returns to the city. She agrees distractedly. In the carriage afterward, Grace counts the talers with relief, planning to pay taxes in advance. Stephen admits he does not trust DuValier, though Marguerite treats the remark lightly and downplays the concern.

Stephen feels ashamed of his conduct at the Prince’s lodgings and apologizes to Grace during the carriage ride home, although she assumes he is referring to nervousness during the royal audience. Grace mentions she needs to gather oakmoss for her perfumes, and Stephen asks to accompany her because of the recent murders in the city. After some discussion about the killings and the possibility that victims may have been hidden in the river, Grace agrees that he can come.

The next day they walk to the muddy commons outside Archenhold to collect the moss. While searching the trees, Grace talks about her past partnership with another perfumer and reflects on how relief at leaving her apprenticeship once felt like happiness. Stephen reassures her that she cannot blame herself for not recognizing her situation sooner. They eventually locate oakmoss high in a tree, and Stephen lifts Grace so she can cut it free. The physical closeness intensifies the tension between them. When she slides back down from his arms, Stephen finally kisses her.

Grace and Stephen trek through mud-covered hills outside Archenhold to gather oakmoss. Grace shares that she used to escape into nature to get away from a previous partner, becoming visibly distressed at the memory. Stephen wants to know more, and Grace admits she was unhappy in that relationship but had confused relief with happiness at the time. Stephen insists she should not blame herself for not knowing what she was never allowed to know. Grace confesses she is happy now, though the recent assassinations and turmoil in the city make that happiness feel uncertain.

They spot oakmoss high in a tree. Stephen lifts Grace by the hips so she can reach it. The position quickly becomes intensely arousing for Stephen, with Grace pressed against him. When she slides down his body after collecting the moss, he kisses her. The kiss is passionate and consuming. Grace responds eagerly, and Stephen briefly loses himself in the moment before pulling back. He suddenly apologizes and says it should not have happened because he fears the danger tied to his nature as a paladin of the Saint of Steel. Grace is devastated by the rejection.

They argue as they descend the hill. Stephen tries to explain he is dangerous as a paladin, but Grace coldly tells him she is not interested in his excuses. She insists she can take care of herself, having walked from Anuket City in winter with only her clothes and her civette, Tab. During their tense exchange, Grace detects a strange smell she cannot identify: burnt, acrid, with a sour note and an unexpected sweet scent layered over it. She insists on tracking it, knowing that her inability to identify a scent is highly unusual. Stephen helps her search. Grace suddenly steps on a severed head, hidden in the mud and leaves.

Stephen and Grace flee toward the river after discovering the severed head, with Stephen urging them to leave quickly in case the killer is nearby. They cross a footbridge and make their way to a temporary guard post set up near the flooded districts. Grace is shaking and covered in mud. Stephen offers her his cloak and stays beside her while they report the discovery to the guards. Over the next hour, they give their statements repeatedly to various officials. Stephen shields Grace from excessive questioning as much as possible. Grace sits by the fire, feeling cold despite the warmth, struggling with shock and trying to maintain her composure.

Stephen arranges for another paladin, Shane, to escort Grace home rather than doing so himself, recognizing that Grace does not want him near her after their fraught encounter. Shane arrives, handsome and wearing the same gingerbread-scented muscle rub as Stephen. On the walk home, Grace suddenly demands to know why they smell like gingerbread. Shane explains it is a family recipe muscle rub made by their brother István, a mixture of cinnamon, ginger, and pepper used to ease sore muscles.

When they reach Grace’s shop, Shane asks if someone will stay with her that night, explaining that people sometimes need company after a shock. Grace insists she wants to be alone and closes the door, exhausted and overwhelmed by the day’s events.

Stephen works with the city guard through the evening searching for more evidence near where the head was found. Guard Captain Mallory informs Stephen that another head was discovered that same morning on the opposite side of the city, suggesting either the killer is striking twice daily or there is a copycat. Neither possibility is comforting. Stephen suggests consulting a paladin of the Dreaming God about possible demon possession. After the search concludes at nightfall, Stephen returns to the Temple.

Shane confronts Stephen in the hallway, saying he does not know what Stephen did to Grace but is considering calling him out for it. Stephen admits Shane probably should. Unable to sleep, Stephen goes to István’s room and formally requests confession. He tells István about kissing Grace and then panicking and pushing her away. István is unimpressed, telling Stephen that lust is normal and not a sin. When Stephen insists he cannot be trusted around Grace because of his berserker nature, and the instability left by the death of their god, István points out that none of the paladins have had uncontrolled “fits” during intimate moments in three years, even though the battle-rage “tide” sometimes rises, citing his own secret relationship with Bishop Beartongue as proof it can be done safely.

Stephen argues he fears becoming like a golem, unable to stop once started. István dismisses this, saying Stephen’s real plan is a kind of slow self-destruction, cutting himself off from feeling anything. István refuses to grant Stephen absolution for wanting more from life and tells him he deserves better than a half-existence defined by guilt and duty.

Grace spends a restless night dwelling on the kiss and Stephen’s rejection. In the early hours, she hears someone in her workshop. Realizing an intruder is present, Grace quietly moves to barricade her bedroom door with a chair while listening to the sounds in the next room. When the intruder hears the noise, he flees through the front door. Grace later discovers that five of her six notebooks have been stolen, leaving her with only the oldest, falling-apart journal.

Marguerite arrives and they assess the damage. The notebooks contain years of experimental recipes and techniques, essentially Grace’s entire body of work. Grace is devastated, knowing she will have to recreate most of her scents from memory. Marguerite suggests a rival perfumer might have wanted to steal recipes after Grace’s success at the reception and with the Crown Prince. Grace protests that she is nobody, but Marguerite insists Grace has become a rising star among the elite.

Grace is overwhelmed by memories of a similar loss from earlier in her life, when her husband Phillip bought out her apprenticeship and she could not reproduce her master’s recipes. The smell of that time—tallow, sex, and damp wool—seems to flood her senses. She recalls how Phillip married her immediately, treating her talent as an investment whose value depended on recovering those scents. Overcome with panic, Grace leaves the shop to check one of her hidden emergency stashes around the city. She finds the one in an abandoned mausoleum intact: two changes of clothes and a pouch of coins, enough to survive for a month or two if everything collapses. The discovery reassures her slightly, and she resolves to return and begin rebuilding.

Stephen wakes feeling guilty about hurting Grace, then realizes this is the first morning in three years that his first thought upon waking was not about wanting to stay in bed forever. He encounters Jorge, a paladin of the Dreaming God, who still bears a scar through his eyebrow from when Stephen struck him during a berserker “fit” three years earlier. Jorge has examined the severed head at the guard’s request and found no evidence of demonic possession, though he admits something feels off about the case.

Stephen goes to the training hall where he finds Marcus, another paladin, violently attacking the training equipment. Marcus confesses he had a wife before the Saint died and chose to let her believe he was killed at Hallowbind rather than burden her with his broken state. He does not know if she remarried and finds the uncertainty unbearable. Stephen embraces him until Marcus calms. Afterward, Stephen reflects that the paladins must remain strong for one another and convinces himself that distancing himself from Grace was the right decision.

Meanwhile, Grace forces herself to continue working despite the theft of her notebooks. She recreates perfume orders from memory while carefully writing down each step so she can rebuild her lost formulas. During this work, DuValier visits the shop and explains that the Crown Prince’s departure has been delayed because the prince has fallen ill. With his duties finished, DuValier asks Grace if she would join him for the afternoon meal. After brief hesitation, Grace agrees and suggests a nearby bakery that sells cheese pies.

Grace reflects on her arrest, which she initially thought was about the break-in at her shop. Three men arrived: two professional royal guards and one priest from the Motherhood. When they say she is under arrest for poisoning, Grace asks who was poisoned. The priest announces it was the Crown Prince of Charlock. Grace is baffled, protesting that the Prince seemed nice and asking how this could be a mistake. The guards politely but firmly insist she must come with them. She asks for time to finish heating oakmoss but is denied. When she protests, more people arrive to search her shop, moving her carefully organized materials and creating chaos.

Tab bolts from the bedroom during the commotion. Grace calls desperately for him, but when the door opens, the civette escapes into the street. Grace tries to chase after him, but the guard stops her. Despite her pleas that Tab is not good at being outside and will get lost or hurt, the guards insist they must leave immediately. Grace is transported by carriage to a building in the shadow of the Old City wall. She asks if this is a guard station and is told it is where she will be held until trial. Her protests that this is a misunderstanding and that no one has even asked if she did it receive only the reassurance that if she is innocent, she has nothing to worry about.

Grace is escorted upstairs and locked in a sparse cell with a table, chair, bed, privacy screen, and shuttered window. The door clicks shut behind her, and she realizes the magnitude of her situation.