When Maggie goes to her study, she discovers a live fish on the floor. She also finds that she has perfect recall of the book series, able to reproduce scenes word for word. Will arrives with a note warning that Drugh Harra, Filderon’s mercenary commander son-in-law, is coming for revenge on the Magnars.

When Reynald, Gort, and Kaiden return, they plan for a confrontation with the Butcher. Gort draws a detailed map of Knight Vanquisher Plaza. Gort, Will, and Lute will guard the plaza’s exits while Reynald ambushes the Butcher from inside a warehouse. Shana will provide sniper support from a rooftop. Kaiden says he can pick the warehouse lock. Maggie is ordered to stay home.

Reynald questions Maggie about the man from the Garden who spoke to her. Her description of his striking handsomeness prompts Reynald and Gort to exchange a meaningful look.

One morning, Maggie watches Reynald effortlessly dominate Will and Lute in sparring. Kaiden observes with a haunted expression. Gort makes lockpicks for Kaiden based on the boy’s drawings.

A noble visitor arrives asking for Maggie by name. Earl Berengur is seeking information about a missing man: Pelegrin, his brother. After testing his character, Maggie tells him Pelegrin is alive but recovering from war trauma in a monastery. She details the specific war crime that haunts Pelegrin and warns that forcing him home would lead him to die by suicide. In exchange for the monastery’s location, Berengur reveals that the man who told him about Maggie’s abilities is Shod, a Shears agent working at the Three Moons. Berengur leaves his family crest with Maggie as a marker of his debt for the information.

Maggie realizes that she has uncovered original intelligence, independent of what she knows from the books: A Shears agent is selling information to Arvel and those in his faction. Reynald analyzes the future motivations of both Arvel and Everard, concluding that both ultimately act to protect their own domains.

That evening, Maggie and Reynald meet Drugh Harra at Taryz. Maggie attempts to reason with him, but Drugh states Filderon was family, and his wife demands accountability. When Maggie refuses to give up the Magnars and accepts responsibility for Filderon’s death, Reynald reveals his face. Drugh recognizes him, is visibly terrified, and leaves immediately.

Maggie finds another fish on her desk and concludes that the fish are gifts. She hides in her linen chest to catch the culprit. Kaiden sneaks into her room and steals her favorite reed pen. Following him, Maggie discovers a chest in his room containing small items stolen from each household member.

Kaiden reveals that his parents died of ring fever after sending him away to save his life. His master beat him until Kaiden fought back, after which he was sold to Derog. Maggie realizes Kaiden is collecting talismans from his new family out of fear of abandonment. Instead of punishing him, she instructs him to return the items within two days without being caught, reframing the stealing as a skills challenge.

Later, Reynald joins Maggie as she waits with a plate of meat she has set as bait for the fish-giver. A small red stelka emerges from under her bed, takes the meat, and retreats into a nest made from Maggie’s old gown. Maggie recognizes it as the stelka that has been following her since the beginning. Reynald observes that life with Maggie is never boring.

On Planter 24, Reynald takes Maggie and Kaiden to Sonndor Cemetery, where Maggie has used city records to find Kaiden’s parents’ ashes and paid to have them buried at their family tree with five generations of ancestors. Kaiden is given privacy to make offerings.

While waiting, Maggie and Reynald find a massive wooden statue of a dursan and discuss Ralinbor’s fallen family. Maggie hints that Ralinbor’s son may have survived. They share personal information about their parents, and Maggie becomes emotional, confessing her fear of seeing Reynald die as he did in the books. Reynald takes her hand and vows that the Butcher will not kill him. A powerful mutual attraction flares between them, but Maggie pulls away, knowing she cannot be honest with him about her origins. Reynald respects her boundary without a word.

Maggie insists she must be present during the confrontation with the Butcher. Reynald agrees on the condition that she follow his orders precisely. She gives him her lucky coin. A tearful but composed Kaiden rejoins them and hugs Maggie.

In the early hours of Planter 25, Maggie and Reynald wait inside the pan oil warehouse as the Butcher arrives in the plaza with a body in a handcart. Reynald exits to confront him. The Butcher, boxed in by the hidden Magnars, attacks with a furious barrage of strikes. Reynald parries and lands three swift cuts before the wounded Butcher activates purple magic that blurs his body and increases his speed.

Solentine sprints into the plaza. Gort tries to intercept him as Solentine runs up a wall. Using the distraction, the Butcher flees. Shana’s crossbow bolt misses. Fearing he will use morr beads to escape, Maggie tackles him to add weight. The Butcher strikes her with his pommel and raises his blade to kill her—then green fire, Fatefire, shears off the front of his blade. The Butcher immediately vanishes.

Maggie sees someone she thinks is Reynald holding a sword dripping with green magic. She realizes he is Ramond vi Everard. Horrified, she runs back to the house and tells the children to hide.

Solentine and Everard appear in her room. Everard is no longer hiding his powerful, predatory nature. He chastises Maggie for leaving the building. Solentine is furious that Everard disappeared and is now allied with an unknown. Everard claims Maggie, stating she belongs to him, forcing Solentine to back down. To convince a skeptical Solentine, Maggie reveals a shameful secret from his childhood and warns him of an impending financial disaster for his family. Convinced, Solentine agrees to handle the matter, making Everard swear to remain in the house until he returns.

Alone, Everard confirms the real Reynald Karis died on the sixth of Planter. Devastated, Maggie tells Everard to leave. He promises he will never hurt her. She says she liked him better as Reynald, and he agrees. In her room, Maggie stores a chunk of the Butcher’s hair she tore out during the struggle, noting his blood is also on her sleeve.

The morning after the plaza fight, Maggie wakes sore and bruised. At a tense breakfast, Everard tries to act like Reynald, but Maggie sees through it. He confirms the Butcher’s second victim was Velpor, a Conqueror knight, whose body the Shears have hidden.

Maggie announces her plan to go to the Defender Citadel to warn Eliarde. She successfully argues against Everard accompanying her—he is too recognizable and has promised Solentine to stay put—and secures Lute as her escort. On the walk, Lute expresses his feelings of betrayal over Gort and Everard’s deception. Maggie tells him they have a secret second stop in Old Town after the Citadel, and he agrees to keep it from Everard. Lute spots a woman following them, whom Maggie assumes is a Shears agent and decides to ignore.

Maggie and Lute arrive at the Defender Citadel and use Berengur’s crest to gain entry. Lute is required to wait at the gate. She is escorted through the fortress, briefly glimpsing Lord Arvel from a distance. In a back courtyard, she meets Earl Bellen, who informs her Berengur is away. Maggie asks him to deliver a warning to Dame Eliarde instead: a killer who uses purple speed magic is targeting famous knights, and Eliarde is next. Bellen agrees, noting Eliarde is dear to Lord Arvel, and offers Maggie a carriage for her return.

Maggie and Lute take the carriage to Old Town. They locate the House of Morning Sky, headquarters of the Okulan Clan Harzi. Maggie endures a deliberately rude reception, kneeling in the courtyard for an hour to show respect for their customs, before being granted an audience with the orsi, Digi Dareel.

Maggie offers to trade a secret for the use of a mordok, a magical tracking creature. She reveals that Digi’s father knows she is not his biological daughter and has sent her cousin Tarak to spy on and eventually kill her. Tarak attacks but is subdued by General Mrest Eser, and the assassination authorization is found on him. Maggie reveals Mrest Eser is Digi’s true father. Digi accepts the truth, honors her new father, and declares war on the tair. She names Maggie an ally and grants her request for a mordok.

Maggie then finds the man from the Garden caged as a trespasser and buys him for thirty dens to prevent a diplomatic incident for her new allies.

Maggie, Lute, and the man from the Garden leave the Harzi compound. Once out of sight, Lute frees him. The man flirts with Maggie and reveals he broke in to retrieve something that does not belong to the Harzi. The mordok, Tzeri, is aggressive and bites Maggie repeatedly.

As they reach the main road, the man speaks a line from the books, and Maggie recognizes him as Estol Silveren, Lord Commander of the Redeemer Knights and Hreban’s ally. Lute puts his sword to Silveren’s neck and forces him to leave.

Maggie explains she acquired the mordok to track the Butcher using the bloody hair and bloodstained clothing she kept from the plaza fight. An unseen assailant then lunges from a side street and stabs Lute. Someone grabs Maggie’s wrist, and she loses consciousness.

Maggie wakes on a table in the Butcher’s lair. He has stabbed her liver and smashed her kneecaps. He demands to know whether Hreban has betrayed him by colluding with Everard. When she refuses to speak, he cuts off her fingers one by one. Maggie endures the torture until she bleeds to death, whispering a promise to kill him.

Maggie resurrects on the table. The Butcher is eating nearby with his back to her. She frees herself, grabs his mace, and attacks from behind, smashing his skull. She beats his body in a blind rage until Everard arrives and stops her. He wraps her in his cloak and carries her out. Outside, Will and Lute are waiting—Lute alive. Maggie clings to Everard in the carriage as she breaks down sobbing. A Conqueror checkpoint stops them, but the guard sees Everard’s magical aura and immediately lets them pass.

Everard carries Maggie into the house, where Shana and Clover have a bath ready. Shana takes over, and Everard promises to wait outside the door. They wash the blood off Maggie, who is in severe pain from the resurrection’s healing process, and give her medicated wine to help her rest.

Fearing her rescue is a dying hallucination, Maggie has Clover hold her hand as she tests reality. Clover recounts how Everard reacted with cold fury upon seeing Lute wounded, and how they used Tzeri to track Maggie. Worried Everard will punish Lute for failure, Maggie tries to get out of the bath. Everard, overhearing from the hallway, sends word that Lute is not in trouble and Maggie should rest.

After her bath, Everard carries Maggie upstairs. He admits it was his fault she was taken. Maggie asks him to stay the night; he agrees and sits in a chair by her bed. She tells him the Man from the Garden is Estol Silveren. Everard promises to protect her, swearing he will kill Silveren if he comes near her. He extinguishes the lanterns, and she falls asleep under his watch.

One morning, Maggie wakes to find Everard still in the chair by her bed. She reflects on her ordeal and her victory over the Butcher, realizing Matheo and the Sun Margrave are now safe. Kaiden finds her and escorts her downstairs.

Everard intercepts Maggie and leads her to the courtyard, where he has set up a private breakfast. Maggie reestablishes a formal boundary by refusing to let him pour her tea, citing his ducal status. Everard gives her an artist’s portrait of the real Reynald Karis.

He tells her the full story of Reynald’s death: His horse collapsed on the road to Selva, and pinned and dying, Reynald sent his sword and papers to Everard. Everard arrived in time to be with him at the end, swore an oath to find Matheo, and buried him in Kair Toren before traveling to Taryz Teahouse, where he met Maggie. Maggie learns Reynald’s horse fell on the morning of Planter 3—the same day she arrived in Rellas—suggesting the timeline had already diverged.

Everard admits he impersonated Reynald because Maggie knew his friend’s secrets, and he wanted to understand how. He states their goals align: He must prevent the civil war to protect Selva but has no desire for the throne of Rellas. He also confirms the Butcher’s lair was found on Sava Island, and that her severed fingers were not recovered, meaning her body parts disappear upon resurrection. Everard offers to teach Maggie to use a dagger.

Maggie declares victory, confident Hreban can never become the Sun Margrave now that the Butcher is dead. Then Solentine Dagarra suddenly appears on the wall, having returned from his family estate with impossible speed. He reports that another body, displayed in the same gruesome manner, has just been found hanging from the Estret Bridge.