Livira ends a kiss she initiated with Evar, confirming it was his first. She reflects on her long years of growth versus Evar’s stasis and on how he once risked himself for her. When they pull apart, Livira pivots to questions: the empty temple, and whether expectation shapes what they perceive.

They test the idea. Livira changes her nail colors, but Evar cannot see the change, though he had noticed her ink and bruises earlier. Concluding their perceptions might be a mix of truth and expectation, they decide to find people. They fly to low town, following smoke and an acrid “barbed” smell Evar detects, and descend into a lodging house.

Inside, they find corpses—humans and sabbers alike—killed by an alkaline gas, including a mother and baby. Floor by floor, the dead repeat: sabbers killed by their own weapon, victims on both sides. Livira realizes the pool sent them to a time without battle because the fighting had already ended in universal death. Sickened, they decide to leave. Livira briefly glimpses a white child at a window, but Evar stops her; they can change nothing here.

They return to the twin pools by the wolf-head and jump back to the woods. Immediately a red-maned sabber charges. Evar meets it head-on; the attacker is Clovis, who berates him and declares Livira is a sabber. Evar insists the place distorts sight, but Clovis retorts that her eyes are not fooled, and Livira understands Clovis is right about what she sees.