Benji smoothly acknowledges Maude as his champion and the victor of the joust, pretending she was always his dearest friend. Sybil has a private reunion with Maude, who reveals her plan to strip Benji of his power by bankrupting his noble supporters in the tournament. Maude then arranges a moment alone for Sybil and Rory. They share a passionate moment inside a carriage, but their intimacy is cut short when Maude knocks on the carriage to signal that they must leave. Later, Bartholomew gives Sybil a notebook he stole from the king, which belonged to King Benedict Castor the First. When questioned, Bartholomew confirms matter-of-factly that the limestone shard he threw at Dedrick was a piece of his own body and that he is slowly crumbling. Sybil is deeply upset and bets Bartholomew to take better care of himself. While reading the old king’s notebook, Sybil and Bartholomew find no information about the sedative ox-eye, but they discover an important fact: When sprites die, their bodies don’t decay but instead turn into limestone, the same material that forms the tor. As the caravan approaches the Fervent Peaks, they see that one of the mountains has crumbled.

The king’s caravan slowly makes its way through the Fervent Peaks, with wreckage from last night’s earthquake frequently blocking the path. When they finally reach the town, they’re met by Avice Fischer, Hamelin’s mother, who leads them to the Ardent Oarsman’s castle. On the castle steps, they find the corpses of 20 sprites staked through their necks, a gruesome display for which Avice and the local nobles proudly take credit, stating that they chased all the sprites out of the mountains the previous night—at the same time that the earthquake occurred—killing those that couldn’t escape. At the welcome feast, Avice secretly proposes an alliance to Sybil: If Sybil helps kill Benji and agrees to marry Hamelin, Avice will make her a powerful figure in the Peaks. Sybil flatly refuses, unwilling to be a “holy object” for Avice to exploit. Worried about Sybil, Rory and Maude drink ox-eye to better understand her visions, while Bartholomew looks on. Only Rory is plunged into a vision, witnessing the abbess of Aisling Cathedral drowning Sybil. Speaking in a low, terrible rasp, Rory prophesies the violent end of the Stonewater Kingdom. The vision concludes with Sybil, now clad in armor, pressing the abbess into water and then pulling her out and striking her with a hammer, reducing her to dust, as Rory is crushed by the cathedral’s falling ceiling.

Rory steals back his three stolen gold rings from Hamelin in a castle corridor. He then takes Sybil to a remote plateau to train for the next tournament event, the feats of strength. At first, Sybil smashes huge rocks with impressive strength, but the pain in her abdomen soon overwhelms her. Rory confronts her about her ultimate plan: She admits that she intends to destroy the remaining magical stone objects and then sacrifice herself to end the kingdom’s cycle of tyranny. She believes that her death will finally convince the people to stop believing in false idols. Rory vehemently rejects her martyrdom. They spar, and the fight gives way to passionate intimacy, but Sybil is again overcome by pain from her wound. To help her, Rory offers Sybil his blood, which contains the healing properties of spring water. She drinks it, and her pain subsides. Back in her room, King Benji confronts Sybil, forbidding her from competing. He informs her that he and Avice have already agreed to change the final event to a swimming race across the basin. Since Sybil can’t swim, Bartholomew volunteers to compete in her place, reasoning that as a creature of stone, he doesn’t need to breathe.

Bartholomew competes in the feats of strength. In the first event, a swimming race, Hamelin uses the magical stone oar to create a wave, cheating to narrowly win, with Bartholomew taking second place. The second event is rock breaking, which Bartholomew wins with a single deliberate blow that splits the rock in two but sends limestone blooming off his own back. The final event is a test of endurance where competitors must hold a heavy stone in a net. As Hamelin begins to falter, while Bartholomew holds his own stone without any apparent strain, he again uses the oar to cheat, battering Bartholomew with waves. When this fails to make Bartholomew drop his stone, Hamelin slams the oar into Bartholomew’s back, causing more damage to the gargoyle’s already slowly crumbling body. When Hamelin swings the oar a second time, Bartholomew catches it in his free hand while still holding the net aloft. He then snaps it in half, destroying the magical object. Enraged, Hamelin drops his stone and attacks Bartholomew with a hammer. Sybil immediately tackles Hamelin, beating him viciously in the shallow water. Hamelin eventually overpowers her and is about to deliver a fatal blow with his hammer. To save Sybil, King Benji throws the Artful Brigand’s coin, which obliterates the hammer and kills Hamelin.