Three days later, Immanuelle tends to Honor, who is recovering from the blight but shaken from her illness. That evening she shares a final dinner with her family. After the house is asleep, she packs a knapsack with provisions and Miriam’s journal, planning to leave without a farewell.

In the kitchen, Martha confronts her and demands to know where she is going. While searching Immanuelle’s knapsack, Martha discovers Miriam’s journal. She accuses Immanuelle of betrayal, warns that she is repeating Miriam’s sins, and says that if she leaves she can never return. Immanuelle wavers, then recalls her vision of the final plague of slaughter. She leaves the home reluctantly.

Immanuelle meets Ezra at the Haven’s gate with a wagon and supplies. He reveals he has forged warrants for them both and insists on accompanying her. As they flee, the cathedral bells toll an alarm and Immanuelle realizes that Martha has alerted the Prophet’s Guard about her escape attempt. Ezra gives her the reins and fires at their pursuers. When guards surround them, Ezra jumps from the wagon to fight them off, buying her time and promising her the gatekeepers will honor the warrant.

Ezra is shot but he keeps fighting as the chase spills into a village near the gate. As the Guard closes in, a supernatural darkness falls, which Immanuelle recognizes as the third plague. She uses the confusion to break away and reaches the Gate, which is open and waiting for her. Immanuelle escapes into the wilderness alone.

The Guards stop chasing Immanuelle after she exits the gate, and she travels alone through unbroken darkness as a sleet storm worsens. She finds brief shelter in monastery ruins, then pushes on. At a fork in the road, she chooses a thin, bare path to the western mountain track toward Ishmel. She prays for Ezra’s safety.

As they climb a steep mountain during a thunderstorm, Immanuelle’s horse spooks, and her wagon slides over a cliff’s edge. Immanuelle is able to free the horse just as the wagon and all her supplies crash into the valley below. With only the horse and her clothes, she remounts and continues in the pouring rain toward Ishmel.

Finally, Immanuelle arrives in Ishmel, where slivers of daylight filters through the darkness. When she asks about Vera, a beggar points her to a cottage marked with a shielding sigil she recognizes from the ruins. A woman named Sage opens the door, recognizes Immanuelle and calls for Vera, a tall, imposing woman with the Mother’s mark between her eyebrows. Vera and Sage usher her to the fire. Vera questions her about her route and any pursuers. Immanuelle begs Vera to let her explain herself. Vera tells her to rest and says they will speak more in the morning.

Immanuelle falls asleep to the sound of Vera and Sage arguing in the next room. She notes that the spare bedroom does not seem to be used often, suggesting Vera and Sage share a bed. Eventually, she falls into a deep sleep.

When Immanuelle wakes, Vera is gone and Sage is cooking breakfast. Sage says that she and Vera have been partners for 12 years, confusing Immanuelle, who is unfamiliar with same-sex relationships.

When Vera returns, Immanuelle gives her the portrait of Daniel from Miriam’s journal. When Immanuelle shares her theories about her mother and the witches, Vera insists that Lilith manipulated Miriam, who was trying to shield her child. She explains that the four witches were drawn to Miriam because she was pregnant with Immanuelle, and that Immanuelle’s powerful blood is the plagues’ true source. Vera claims that Immanuelle can reverse the plagues by carving a sigil into her arm with a consecrated blade, like the Prophet’s dagger. However, this ritual will draw the plagues back into her.

Immanuelle insists on learning the sigil. Vera hesitates, but reluctantly sketches the design. As Immanuelle prepares to leave, the Prophet’s Guard storms the cottage. Their leader, Ezra’s half-brother Saul, captures Sage. Wearing Ezra’s dagger, he orders his men to take Immanuelle.

For 10 days, guards confine Immanuelle in a dungeon beneath the Haven known as contrition. She overhears conversations between the Guards suggesting that they have arrested many other women under the orders of the Prophet. Each day Isaac and other apostles interrogate her about witchcraft, her role in the plague, and her relationship with Ezra. When she refuses to incriminate Ezra, Isaac burns her hand and then her face with candle wax.

The guards bring in Martha to plead with Immanuelle to confess at her trial to spare the family from shame. Immanuelle refuses, privately resolving to hold out for a chance to use the reversal sigil. Martha warns that refusal to repent will damn her and leaves.

On the day of her trial, guards parade Immanuelle through a hostile crowd into the cathedral. The ongoing darkness plague makes it impossible for Immanuelle to determine what is real and what is her imagination. The guards belittle and insult Immanuelle as they walk her to the cathedral, adding to her nerves. Inside the cathedral, hundreds of people wait to watch the trial. Immanuelle realizes that the people are going to find her guilty no matter what she says. Nevertheless, she determines to prove her innocence in order to save Bethel. As the trial begins, the Prophet formally charges her with witchcraft, murder, and treason.

Immanuelle’s grandfather Abram testifies first, begging for banishment over execution. A battered Judith follows and accuses Immanuelle of seducing Ezra through witchcraft.

Ezra appears last, bruised and hurt. To save her, he confesses to every crime, claiming he caused the plagues and used her to hide his crimes. The crowd is horrified by this betrayal at the highest levels of the church. The Guard seizes Ezra, and the Prophet adjourns the proceedings, leaving Immanuelle’s fate unresolved.