When Avi, Kyr, and Yiso arrive on Chrysothemis, they trade Yiso’s ship for identification and money. The pirates want to buy Yiso, but Kyr refuses. Avi sleeps with a pirate to seal the deal. Avi finds them a tin shack to rent. Yiso sleeps and heals slowly. When Yiso wakes 10 days later, Kyr puts a splint on their broken finger, and Yiso passes out. Kyr starts to think of Yiso as a friendly animal instead of an enemy.

Yiso wakes up again and talks about myriad things, including the warbreed genetics used to speed up Kyr’s healing, how humans have sex, and how majo zi have sex. Avi, Kyr, and Yiso argue over pronouns; Yiso uses “they/them” pronouns, but Kyr wants to refer to Yiso with “he/him” pronouns. Yiso’s questions about Gaea make Kyr start to think differently about it.

Twelve days after they arrive, Avi announces that he has located Mags and gives Kyr a device with a map to follow. Avi doesn’t come with Kyr. Kyr walks through the city of Raingold and is overwhelmed by the sky and the rain. A person gives Kyr a raincoat and mentions a charity where she can get help. Kyr is overwhelmed by the sea. She is upset by the statue that memorializes Earth. It doesn’t seem to be enough for killing a planet. She runs away from it and toward the destination on the map.

The city feels luxurious to Kyr. She stands outside the apartment building that the map led her to and gazes at a tree. A child approaches Kyr and introduces himself as Ally. He says that his mother cries about trees, and he thinks there should be native species of trees, not Terran ones. Kyr is looking for apartment five, which is Ally’s apartment. Mags is staying with him and his mother. When Kyr says that she’s Mags’s sister, Ally says she’s his secret aunt.

Inside the apartment, Ally gives Kyr sandwiches and cake. Kyr thinks that Ursa took Ally hostage; he seems to be Jole’s son. Ally talks about fishing in Raingold Bay. Kyr feels lost, and he asks if she’s crying about fish. Ursa comes home. Kyr remembers the last time she saw her sister, watching Sparrow in Drill, five days before she left. Kyr notices that she’s now armed, unlike most people on Chrysothemis. Ursa sends Ally to his room and then apologizes and hugs Kyr.

When Kyr asks about Mags, Ursa says that he’s at school. Kyr believes that Ursa commands the Strike force that Mags is in, and she apologizes for thinking Ursa was a traitor. Ursa clarifies, saying that everything they were told on Gaea was a lie, and puts her stunstick on the floor in front of Kyr. Kyr calls her a traitor. Ursa tries to explain that the people who founded Gaea were traitors to the Zi Sin Accords. Kyr doesn’t believe Ursa. Ursa says that Jole is a despot who murdered her mother and Kyr’s father. Kyr argues that Jole did the right thing because majo destroyed the Earth. Ursa says that Ally is her son.

Kyr puts her head in her hands, Ursa tries to touch her, and Kyr flinches. Ursa says that Kyr can live on Chrysothemis with her and Mags, get mental-health treatment, and go to school. Ursa wants them to be a family. Kyr says that if Mags is there, that’s all that matters. Internally, she wants to do Strike missions with him and take him back to Gaea. Ursa tells Ally that he can come out of his room. She makes some calls in another room.

Kyr watches Ally do his homework. When he starts drawing, she criticizes him for playing instead of working. He explains that he’s doing his art homework and invites Kyr to draw with him, but she declines. About an hour later, Mags comes home. He and Kyr hug; they are overjoyed to be reunited.

Ursa makes dinner, which is better than any of the food on Gaea. Kyr and Mags share his room and talk about her assignment. Kyr says that one in three women die in Nursery, which shocks Mags. Mags is also shocked that Avi helped Kyr escape. Kyr relays that Avi is there and says hi. Mags confesses that he’s gay. Kyr says that his sexuality doesn’t matter to her; fighting for Earth is the only thing that matters. Mags gets frustrated that Kyr thinks she doesn’t have sexual desires and can’t relate to Mags. She hugs him while he cries and apologizes.

Mags admits that some of the guys in Coyote stole his food when they found out he was gay. Kyr wants to punish them. Mags is just happy that Kyr doesn’t have antigay attitudes. Mags says that he won’t carry out his mission for Strike; he doesn’t want to kill people and refuses to be a soldier.

The next morning, Kyr wakes up before Mags. She decides that she needs to fulfill her cause and duty. Ally wakes up and asks if Kyr is running away. He wants to get Ursa. Kyr tells him no threateningly, but Ally isn’t scared. She begs him not to tell Ursa. He makes her promise to come back, and she does, though she does not plan to honor this promise.

Kyr walks to Avi’s shack, but her ID chip doesn’t work. She breaks open the door and discovers that the place is empty. The landlord comes in, and Kyr demands to know where Avi and Yiso went. He claims that he doesn’t know and tells her that he sold the things they left behind, except for a Victrix Wing sigil. Kyr takes it and pins it inside her pocket. The landlord swears at her as she leaves.

Kyr decides to go to the Wisdom node that Prince Leru will visit in Hfa. She will kill the prince, damage the technology, and die in the process. This idea of martyrdom excites her. She scorns the luxury of Chrysothemis.