Inside Demeter’s Lock, Lyra stands in a silo as grain pours from the roof, rapidly burying her and a hallucination of her past self. Guilt and doubt freeze her in place. She fixates on Dex being glamoured when he killed Meike and questions whether she deserves to have survived. A devastating thought strikes her: What if Boone is the true savior the Titans have been waiting for? Convinced she should die, she refuses to move. The hallucination of past Lyra frantically tries to drag her toward the exit, but Lyra resists. A dark figure steps between them, and past Lyra identifies him as Hades before running to wedge the door open. When Lyra asks if he is the real Hades, the figure reveals he is the copy from Hades’s Lock.

Lyra’s relief evaporates when she confirms it is the copy, not the real Hades. He places her hand over the butterfly carving in her pocket. The memory of it clears the Kykeon fog from her mind. He boosts her over the grain mound and out the door, but the grain buries him as it slams shut. Lyra bangs desperately on the sealed door before the