Brother Diaz crawls from the Adriatic onto a desolate beach, retching and exhausted, wearing only his ink-stained undergarments and the vial of Saint Beatrix. The grey, rain-swept shore offers no comfort as he struggles to orient himself, seeing the burning galley as a distant smudge on the horizon. He finds Vega face-down in a rock pool and desperately wrestles her massive weight to roll her over. When she wakes, she sobs uncontrollably, crying that she's not safe or clean, consumed with guilt and self-loathing over what the wolf has done.
Brother Diaz finds himself having to be the leader, offering Vega comfort despite his own fears. He admits he owes her for saving his life and needs her protection as they search for survivors. When she despairs about not being trustworthy, he tells her that while she's "an embarrassment at dinner" and unhelpful on pilgrimage, in a fight she's "magnificent." This praise helps Vega recover her confidence. She reveals the papal binding still tugs at her wrist, confirming Alex is alive somewhere, though possibly dying. They strip clothes from two drowned oarsmen - ill-fitting trousers for Brother Diaz and a too-small shirt for Vega that strains comically across her chest.
The chapter explores their unlikely partnership as they prepare to search the coastline. Brother Diaz reflects on rediscovering his purpose through helping others, even someone as cursed as Vega. She warns him never to stand up to the wolf again, as it cannot be trusted or bargained with, but promises to keep it muzzled. The monk realizes that despite recent humiliations, he's finding satisfaction in actually leading rather than just keeping records. Together, the werewolf and the monk set off down the beach, an absurd but determined pair bonded by survival and mutual need.
Chapter 36: Not the First Time
Alex wakes on a beach being slapped in the face by Sunny - "not the first time" - and coughs up seawater. The elf explains she dragged Alex from the drowning waters, demonstrating that while "everyone says elves are awful," Sunny has proven herself a capable rescuer and Alex's only positive experience with elves. Sunny checks Alex's injuries, determining her nose is just bumped despite Alex insisting it got "smashed with a mast." Their interaction reveals Alex's growing appreciation for the elf who constantly saves her life.
They salvage supplies from wreckage on the beach, including an ornate chest that Alex easily breaks open. Inside are Duke Constance's clothes, particularly a red military jacket with elaborate gold buttons and epaulets. Despite being oversized, Alex puts it on, and Sunny notes she looks "like the Empress of Troy," though with "a strong flavor of military arsehole." Alex practices her deportment lessons, standing tall with chin raised, while Sunny reflects on how she "fades away in any company like a whisper in a hurricane." Alex reassures her that she's always made an impression, a compliment that makes Sunny uncomfortable as she trusts insults more than praise.
Their moment is interrupted when Sunny spots eight well-armed figures approaching the beach. The men discover the chest and appear to be searching for something - likely Alex herself. They discuss someone called "the Dane" who worries even a man with a giant corkscrew tool. When the searchers notice Alex's tracks leading up the dune, Sunny and Alex flee inland, running from yet another threat in what has become a pattern of narrow escapes. The chapter ends with them disappearing into the landscape, Alex grimly noting this too is "not the first time" she's had to run for her life.
Chapter 37: Prone to Turmoil
Balthasar and Baptiste struggle desperately to reach shore after their galley was destroyed, clinging to a makeshift raft of three great oars bound together with their belts. Fighting the freezing Adriatic waters and treacherous rocky inlet, they barely manage to drag themselves onto the jagged, barnacle-crusted shore. Exhausted, battered, and soaking wet, they immediately fall into their customary bickering—Balthasar having kicked off his trousers to swim more freely, now finds himself freezing and trouser-less, while Baptiste emerges fully clothed. Their argument reveals their grudging interdependence: both claim to have saved the other's life, and Baptiste lists her tolerance for working with witches, pirates, trolls, and various unsavory characters, but declares magicians the worst of all.
The nausea from Balthasar's papal binding suddenly flares up, indicating that Princess Alexia has survived the shipwreck somewhere along the Dalmatian coast. Despite being cold, sick, and desperate, Balthasar devises a plan to use divination magic at a druid stone circle near Nixic to locate the princess. Baptiste agrees they need to head east to find supplies—and get Balthasar some trousers. However, their hope for a "peaceful moment" is immediately dashed when they discover a valley littered with hundreds of corpses from a recent battle, the nearby hamlet reduced to charred ruins, and carrion birds circling overhead.
Balthasar and Baptiste set about scavenging clothes and supplies from the dead. While Balthasar struggles awkwardly with boot laces, Baptiste—drawing on her experience as a corpse-robber during "local unpleasantness in Prussia"—swiftly outfits herself in shiny horseman's boots, an extravagant military coat, a leather cap with feather, and a purple sash bristling with daggers. She looks spectacular; Balthasar, by contrast, manages only damp trousers and boots that don't fit.
Their looting is interrupted by hostile local scavengers who claim the battlefield as their own. When a wart-covered man and his companions threaten them with salvaged weapons, Balthasar's patience finally snaps. In a display of necromantic power, he raises approximately two dozen corpses from the grass around him, including a young officer with brains hanging from his skull wound. Declaring himself "Balthasar Shamivam Draksi" and announcing he teeters "on a lethal precipice at the very limit of my patience," he intimidates the terrified scavengers—particularly when he notices the wart collector is wearing boots that might fit him properly.
Chapter 38: Bit by a Monk
Vega and Brother Diaz walk together through the coastal dunes, both having survived the shipwreck. Vega, always happiest near water, enjoys the sandy beach—"that crinkly ribbon of the world where land and sea meet, and fight and fuck." She's struck by how different Brother Diaz looks out of his monastic habit, particularly noticing his ribs through his damp, clinging shirt. The two discover an unexpected rapport, bonding over the fact that neither of them chose their current path in life. When Vega shows Brother Diaz the mottled ring of scars from her werewolf bite, surrounded by rings of runes, he asks if what they say about werewolves and the moon is true. At just the word "moon," Vega closes her eyes and shivers from head to toe, seeing it "like a great ripe fruit in the sky, ready to burst with the sweetest juice," confirming the connection is very real indeed.
Their conversation turns to faith and truth. Vega expresses her confusion about religion—pointing out that the Pope and Patriarch excommunicated each other, and there are countless competing versions of truth from different churches, cults, pagans, druids, and demon-worshippers. She can't help thinking that if you wake up one day and see the light, who's to say you won't see a different one the next? Brother Diaz admits he didn't become a monk because he saw the light—he made a mistake. After Vega guesses at various crimes (murder, theft of candlesticks, pie, bacon, cheese, and peas), he finally confesses: he got the wrong girl pregnant, and his mother insisted monk's vows were the only way out for his redemption, protection, and to spare the family embarrassment. Vega is thoroughly disappointed by this relatively minor transgression, having heard and committed far more diabolical outrages herself. She advises him to toss away his guilt "like nutshells"—once you've eaten the nuts, you don't keep dragging the shells up every hill.
The pair discover debris washed up on the beach from the wrecked ship Derex—a large chest with a broken lock, filled with fancy clothes covered in glinting thread. Using her werewolf senses, Vega sniffs the chest and surrounding footprints, confirming that both Princess Alexia and Sunny were there, along with several badly washed men. She tracks their scent, determining they waited in the dunes before heading toward the trees, moving either carefully or being chased.
As Vega snuffles through the hollow following the trail, she suddenly freezes, catching a different scent. Pushing past the smells of Salty Sea, Salty Elf, Scared Princess, and the distracting scent of Brother Diaz, she feels the wolf within her awaken, prowling in the cage of her ribs and scratching to be released. A long, low warning growl comes from deep in her throat. When Brother Diaz asks what she smells, looking frightened, Vega glares up at him and snarls the word, slurred by angry spit rushing into her mouth: "Werewolf."
Chapter 39: The Current Set of Enemies
Sunny crouches in damp brush at sunset, watching her current set of enemies: four men, a woman, and a werewolf gathered around a fire. As a natural spy with the worst luck imaginable, she reflects that making friends can take years, but new enemies pop up like mushrooms after rain. While observing the group, she collects nun's worries mushrooms—not enough to kill anyone who eats them, but enough to leave them "far too busy shitting water to chase any would-be empresses." Her surveillance is interrupted when eight riders arrive, led by Duke Sabas wearing an extravagant golden cloak. Sunny now faces fourteen enemies, purposeful, powerful, and prepared, including a gaunt glowering man and twin sorceress sisters with shaved heads. The Danish werewolf reveals he's caught an elf's scent—that distinctive "salty elf smell"—confirming Sunny's presence in the area.
Determined to protect Alex despite the odds, Sunny holds her breath and creeps toward the horses. In an invisible ballet of sabotage, she steals a stable boy's dagger from his scabbard by flicking his ear, then follows behind him as he conscientiously hobbles the horses, sawing through each rope as soon as he ties it. When the boy discovers his work undone and his dagger missing, Sunny trips him and smacks Sabas's stallion across the rump, sending the roped horses fleeing in a panicked herd. The Danish werewolf immediately senses her presence, looming "big as a house" and snuffling for her scent. Sunny must navigate carefully around him while her lungs burn from holding her breath, managing to toss her handful of nun's worries into the stew along the way.
When one sorceress twin attempts to reveal Sunny with magic, Sunny shoves her face-first into the fire. The other twin unleashes a magical wind blast that nearly drags Sunny off her feet, but she escapes to the tree line with the Danish werewolf bounding after her on all fours "more animal than man." She leads him in a spiral dance through the darkened woods until he's lost and snarling at shadows, then slips away invisible into the gathering night.
Sunny finds Alex talking with strangers at a cart and angrily pulls her away—angry at Alex for putting herself in danger, or perhaps at herself for allowing it. Alex has learned that there's a war between the Count of Nixic and a neighboring countess, and managed to get directions toward Troy plus some stale bread. When Alex asks about the pursuers, Sunny sticks to the good news: she scattered their horses and poisoned their stew. She mentions Duke Sabas was there with his stupid cloak, confirming that Alex's family wants to kill her to steal her inheritance. As they walk through the darkness, Alex laments that she can never make friends and her story is nothing but bad bits. After a moment of silence, Sunny quietly says, "You've made one."
Chapter 40: Our Heavenly Calling
Yakov of Thorn woke to his usual companions—agony and the taste of old blood—though this time with a hint of disappointment at still being alive. The grinding clatter of badly oiled axles and the familiar stench of spoiling meat revealed he was in a corpse cart again, sharing it with five dead men who looked considerably better than he felt. Confused memories floated through his mind—ambushes, battles, graves—all blurring together across years of violence until he couldn't quite place which disaster had landed him here this time. Over the cart's noise, he heard Baron Ricard's cultured voice droning on about his wife Lucretia and their tour of Mediterranean cities, where she had "a habit of wearing out her welcome" with her vampiric appetites.
When the cart stopped, Ricard's eternally youthful face appeared above him, and the pockmarked driver was shocked to discover Yakov still lived. The scene clarified as Yakov was hauled up to sitting in a field hospital beside a stand of trees, priests giving last rites to wounded men while gravediggers scraped away in the background. Ricard explained there had been a fight on the water, and Yakov had dueled one of Princess Alexia's cousins—Constance—on the burning aft castle of the ship. The cousin was good with a sword and would have won a fair fight, but as Ricard noted with raised brows, "who wants to fight those?"
Count Radosev of Nixic and Budimlya arrived with Mother Vincenza, Vicar General to the Archbishop Isabella of Ragusa, both impressed that the celebrated Yakov of Thorn had survived. Radosev revealed that his grandfather had witnessed Yakov's illustrious forebear lift the siege of Kerak during the Third Crusade, putting elves to flight in "the finest damned charge he ever witnessed." While Yakov grimaced at the weight of his family's military legacy and Baron Ricard talked him up as a noted champion and general in the Pope's service, the true purpose of this meeting became clear—Count Radosev needed help in his border war against Countess Yovanka of Peck, with the Western Church backing him and the Eastern Church supporting her.
It was the classic ugly proxy war that the squabbling sibling churches had been fighting for three centuries—precisely the kind of conflict their mission to install a unifying empress in Troy was meant to stop. The Count proposed a deal: help him humble the wayward countess on the battlefield, and he would help track down the runaway Princess Alexia. Yakov, who these days tried to avoid battlefields "but with such little success," could only grimace at the stab of pain where Constance's blade had run him through and mutter "Great." Mother Vincenza spoke with pious certainty about their heavenly calling, noting that "however we might try to dodge our heavenly calling, the saints will guide us back to it." As a priest crooned last rites over yet another corpse, Yakov—trapped once again by duty, honor, and forces beyond his control—resigned himself to another battle he didn't want to fight, in service of a cause that seemed to spiral ever further from its noble intentions.
Chapter 41: The Wrong Way
Alex struggled up an endless rise with battered feet and aching muscles, dizzy with hunger, thinking bitterly that being proclaimed Empress of the East by the Pope had only increased the size of her enemies. As she reached the crest with Sunny, they froze at the sight of a town burning in the valley ahead—its domed bell tower a black finger against flames, the river shimmering with reflected fire, torches dancing across the landscape as a sack unfolded before their eyes. With their pursuers closing in and no good options remaining, Alex reluctantly suggested heading into the burning town itself. Sunny was skeptical—"that town's being sacked"—but agreed they had run out of good ideas, maybe even before Venice. An old woman wheeling a handcart warned them "you're going the wrong way," but as Sunny noted, quoting Baptiste, "you can't turn profits by following the crowd."
They approached the town's edge where bodies hung from a timber arch by their feet, including a monk whose habit had fallen over his head to reveal his dirty underwear. Sunny led Alex through the chaos with her ability to turn invisible, holding her breath to remain unseen while guiding her friend through orchards and outskirts. They encountered Duke Sabas and his mercenaries meeting with the werewolf called the Dane and additional hunters, now numbering over a dozen enemies purposeful and prepared. Sunny caused havoc by scattering their horses and revealed she'd already poisoned their stew with nun's worries mushrooms, then led Alex toward the river where boats might offer escape.
The journey through the burning town became a nightmare of near-misses and desperate improvisation. Sunny used her invisibility to create distractions—appearing on rooftops to draw soldiers' attention, tripping pursuers, disarming attackers—while Alex tried to blend in by stealing a dead soldier's bloodied cloak and helmet. In a bold gambit, Alex walked straight through the town square full of looting soldiers, adopting a man's heavy swagger and discovering that "it's amazing how far you can go if all you do is act like you're meant to be there." When confronted by a beefy soldier, she claimed to be looking for a boat and even helped him load a trunk onto a wagon, all while Sunny crouched hidden beneath it.
The situation erupted when Alex, spotting the werewolf and his companions entering the square, loudly questioned "who are these bastards?" and suggested they looked like thieves. The soldiers, engaged in their own mass robbery, took offense and confronted the newcomers. In the resulting chaos, Alex fled to the river, found a rowing boat, and escaped with Sunny as dawn began to break. Their triumph was short-lived when Sunny revealed she'd been kicked by a panicked horse during their escape. The chapter ended with the two friends drifting downriver on the current—Alex giggling with relief and crying at the same time, while Sunny curled up in the prow, hugging herself and groaning faintly from her injury. They had survived another impossible situation, but at what cost remained to be seen.
Chapter 42: Reverses
Balthasar and Baptiste trudge through war-ravaged Europe on their way to the Standing Stones near Nixic, with Balthasar growing increasingly irritable about his uncomfortable boots, lice-ridden clothes, and diet of squirrel meat. Despite his resentment at being enslaved by the papal binding, he finds himself grudgingly dependent on Baptiste's survival skills and begins to soften toward her philosophy of being flexible like water rather than rigidly demanding the world bend to his will. For a tantalizing moment, as they share smiles and he contemplates a different kind of life, Balthasar glimpses the possibility of companionship with her—until soldiers spring from the bushes and capture them both.
The pair find themselves imprisoned in a cage in the cellar of Countess Jovanka's estate, with Balthasar desperately attempting to talk his way free through increasingly incoherent explanations about druids, spies, and magicians. His efforts only dig them deeper until Baptiste casually reveals she was once a spy and actually knows the Countess from their time as ladies-in-waiting to the Queen of Sicily. The two women greet each other with affectionate insults and laughter, and the prisoners are released into the sprawling military camp where the Countess is preparing for war against her insufferable neighbor, Count Radoseph.
Countess Jovanka leads them to the edge of her encampment to show them the Standing Stones they seek—which lie directly in the valley between her army and Count Radoseph's forces, perfectly positioned to become the epicenter of an imminent battlefield. The stones sit within bowshot of both sides, numbering several thousand soldiers each, making Balthasar's magical destination utterly inaccessible without walking into a war. As Balthasar contemplates yet another disaster derailing his journey, he can only mutter his familiar refrain of frustration at the endless reversals that plague every step toward breaking his binding.
The chapter highlights the developing dynamic between Balthasar and Baptiste, showing how hardship and proximity can wear down rigid personalities and create unexpected connections, even as fate continues to place seemingly insurmountable obstacles in their path. The appearance of Countess Jovanka and her absurd war over petty grievances adds both comic relief and genuine danger, while emphasizing the theme that personal pride and stubbornness can cause devastation far beyond the individuals involved.
Chapter 43: Famously Dove-Ish
Count Radoseph surveys the valley from his camp, eager for battle against Countess Jovanka's forces, while his knights compete to display the most martial enthusiasm and Mother Vincenza assures him of divine sanction and the support of powerful relics. Yakov of Thorn and Baron Ricard, however, recognize that a battle would derail their hopes of finding Princess Alexia, as victory or defeat would bury their mission under the chaos of warfare. When Count Radoseph expects casualties from the coming fight, Yakov steps forward to deliver hard truths, invoking his vow of honesty to warn that the Count's chances of victory are poor.
Drawing on his vast military experience, Yakov methodically dismantles the Count's confidence by pointing out the weaknesses in his position: exhausted soldiers longing for home, thinned ranks from wounds and sickness, while Countess Jovanka's orderly camp suggests good morale and ample provisions. He notes tactical disadvantages in the terrain—her higher ground, steeper slopes, obstacles that would break up an advance, and unfavorable winds that would give her archers greater range. Mother Vincenza argues for divine support through relics, but Yakov counters that in his extensive experience, the saints side with numbers, equipment, and ground rather than piety.
As Baron Ricard artfully distracts Mother Vincenza with talk of Polish dumplings and honeysuckle-covered chapels, Yakov presses his case by appealing to the Count's pride and fear of humiliation. He shifts from discussing the advantages of avoiding battle to emphasizing the devastating loss of prestige that would come from being beaten by Countess Jovanka, suggesting the Count could better humble her at the negotiation table where his shrewdness would give him the advantage. The Count, his initial enthusiasm dampened by Yakov's litany of disadvantages, begins to waver.
The chapter showcases Yakov's masterful manipulation and his evolution from a warrior who once talked peaceful men into violence to one performing penance by talking warmongers out of it. His famous statement that "nine times out of ten, there's more to be won from peace" rings with hard-earned wisdom, even as he admits that time has taught him one man can tip the balance of history—but just as easily in the wrong direction. When the Count observes that Yakov still wears a sword, the old knight's weary smile and response that a man his age needs something to lean on perfectly captures the burden of his years and experience.
Chapter 44: Loophole
Brother Diaz and Vega pick their way through a devastated town littered with horrifically broken corpses, following the trail of Princess Alexia and Sunny inland from the shore. Vega identifies the carnage as the aftermath of the wagon's violent passage through the town as those aboard tried to shake off their pursuers. Despite her fearsome reputation as a killer, Vega has become Brother Diaz's tireless guide and protector, dragging him onward through exhaustion while also proving to be surprisingly good company with occasional flashes of unorthodox insight. At the riverside wharf, Vega determines their quarry escaped by boat just as she hears someone coming—a mob with torches approaching through the square.
Brother Diaz pulls Vega into a warehouse to hide, though she barely moves until he threatens to use the binding, at which point she suddenly complies and bars the door. As they shelter in the darkness listening to the mob pass by, Brother Diaz reflects on how much he has changed from the smug, ambitious monk who once raced to meet the Pope. His hopes have shrunk from comfortable church posts to merely surviving the next horrifying interlude. In the intimate darkness, conversation flows easily, and Vega admits she needs calmer heads like his to help keep the wolf muzzled, while Brother Diaz acknowledges he's changed back to something closer to the man he was before burying himself in a monastery for ten years.
Their conversation grows increasingly charged as they sit in the confined space thick with Vega's overwhelming scent. She raises the question of whether there might be a loophole in the monastic rules about celibacy—specifically regarding creatures that are neither women nor animals but somewhere in between. Brother Diaz finds himself torn between religious prohibition and undeniable desire as Vega moves closer in the darkness. He tries to resist, touching a finger to her lips to gently push her away and declaring the answer must be no, invoking Saint Eustace who turned away from earthly delights.
But resistance crumbles in the face of overwhelming temptation and weeks of shared hardship. With a snarled "fuck it," Brother Diaz pulls Vega back to him, missing in the darkness and kissing her nose before finding her mouth. As they kiss, he slaps away the vial of Saint Beatrix's blood around his neck as if batting aside its desperate last plea. The chapter ends with Brother Diaz acknowledging that lying with a werewolf is utterly wrong, deeply disgusting, and entirely forbidden—yet he cannot help himself, growling as he pulls her close in the darkness of the warehouse.
Chapter 45: What You Can't Change
Alex drags the injured Sunny into a ramshackle abandoned barn, promising shelter despite its squalid condition. When they collapse together in the dirty straw, Sunny feels better lying down despite her agonizing ribs, broken when a horse kicked her during their escape. Alex examines the injury with gentle concern, and despite Sunny's protests that Alex should leave her behind and continue to Troy alone, Alex refuses to abandon her companion after Sunny has saved her life multiple times. Their bond deepens when Alex leans in and deliberately kisses Sunny—a patient, decided kiss that leaves no doubt of its meaning—before heading out to steal a horse from a nearby farm to help them escape.
Sunny drifts in and out of consciousness, dreaming embarrassingly of deep woods and yellow leaves, only to wake convinced Alex has abandoned her after all. But Alex returns triumphantly with a stolen black-and-white patched horse, declaring herself now a horse thief and insisting the animal will be happier as their hero than pulling a plow. As Alex helps Sunny stand, promising to hold her up "for as long as you need," three bounty hunters—a hulking man, a bald one, and a woman with a broken nose—trap them in the barn, eager to deliver the princess to Duke Sabas.
Just as the situation seems hopeless, with Sunny barely able to stand and Alex facing three armed killers, Vega creeps into the barn behind the hunters. Sunny and Alex desperately hold the killers' attention with talk of buried jewels while Vega silently strangles the woman to death, then drives a dagger into the bald man's skull with brutal efficiency. When the big man tries to fight, Vega breaks both his arms with sickening cracks, reducing him to a wailing wreck on his knees. Brother Diaz bursts in wielding a branch as a weapon, transformed from his former self—sinewy, wild, and unshaved without his habit.
The reunion is cut short when the big man claims he can be useful and take a message to Duke Sabas. Brother Diaz orders Vega to let him go using the binding, and she technically complies by releasing her grip—then immediately punches the man so hard she drives his nose into his brain and kills him instantly. When Brother Diaz protests that he told her not to hurt him, Vega argues she only let him go as ordered, sending quite a message indeed. Sunny, lying back in the straw with her eyes closed, accepts the violence with weary resignation: "Why worry about what you can't change after all?" The chapter explores the deepening relationships between the characters while showcasing how violence has become their constant companion, with Vega's brutal efficiency both horrifying and necessary for their survival.
Chapter 46: A Splendid Occasion
Under other circumstances, Balthasar would have reveled in the elaborate peace negotiations unfolding at the Standing Stones, where Countess Jovanka and Count Radoseph meet with their respective entourages in a spectacle of pomp and ceremony. Instead, he skulks miserably behind the glittering procession in grave-robber's boots, corpse-stolen shirt infested with lice, and stained with squirrel grease—resembling an assistant dung-collector rather than one of Europe's foremost practitioners of the arcane. Despite the magical potential of the stones, where mundane brushes mystical and the boundaries between worlds thin, Balthasar feels only the endless niggling of the Pope's binding on his ravaged digestive tract.
The two nobles face each other with full retinues and massed armies watching from opposite hills, hurling insults about spleen and harpies. Balthasar spots Yakov of Thorn and Baron Ricard among Count Radoseph's retinue, while Baptiste reunites with old comrades. The day wears on as the Eastern and Western church priests engage in protracted legal wrangling over every detail, with Count Radoseph growing increasingly baleful as he drinks wine. The tension threatens to erupt into violence multiple times, guards gripping weapons nervously as the married couple—for Radoseph and Jovanka prove to be husband and wife—argue over a disputed pasture.
When Countess Jovanka reveals she wants the pasture where they first met so she can burn down the willows that hold sentimental value, the Count explodes and the two stalk toward each other bellowing threats of total surrender and crushing defeat. Officers prepare to signal charges, retainers ease inward, and everyone senses violence approaching like an old sailor feels a storm. Yakov, Baptiste, and Baron Ricard all mutter "uh-oh" as the world holds its breath at the tipping point where things can only slide one way.
Then a bird chirps, and Countess Jovanka seizes her husband by the collar while he grasps her ornamental breastplate, and they drag each other into a furious embrace and begin passionately kissing, heedless of priests, retainers, or armies. The collective tension releases as bloodshed is averted and the couple declares their love for each other between kisses. As they stumble back against the negotiating table, toppling wine over maps in their ardor, Balthasar observes that these two went to war spreading death and destruction across the region they're meant to care for, all over a lover's tiff. Baron Ricard, contemplating the ruinous cost of war compared to the scarlet damask drapery he had to forego when his wife went to war, delivers the final judgment: "And they call us monsters."
Chapter 47: My Greed Is a Famine
After the Count and Countess ride off following their intense negotiations, the various parties disperse—rival priests still bickering over ancient deeds, guards returning to their camps, servants clearing away. Balthasar finds himself alone with Baptiste, Yakov, and Baron Ricard among the ancient standing stones, feeling the weight of his degradation. Once a proud sorcerer who approached magic as both science and art, he now feels nothing but disgust at how far he has fallen—filthy, enslaved by the papal binding, reduced to performing pedestrian rituals. When Baptiste asks him to track down Princess Alexia, he begins a simple locating spell but quickly spirals into despair over his captivity, condemned to serve a child with no hope of freedom or reward.
In a moment of desperate nihilism, Balthasar realizes he has nothing left to lose and makes a catastrophic decision. Standing at the convergence of channels where the boundary between worlds is thinnest, he performs the most dangerous form of demonology—summoning a demon who wants to come. Despite Baron Ricard's horrified protests, Balthasar speaks the name and calls forth Shaksep, Duke of Beneath. The demon arrives in terrifying majesty, three times man's height with twenty-nine-point antlers dripping with jewelry and tributes, vast crimson wings, and taloned feet. The other companions are reduced to terror—Baptiste curls into a shivering ball, Yakov stands frozen, and even the vampire Baron Ricard can barely speak.
Balthasar, eyes fixed on the ground in fear of madness, begs Shaksep to break the papal binding on his wrist. The demon examines it with interest but delivers a devastating verdict: she cannot break it. Despite her immense power—power to challenge angels themselves—even a Duke of Hell cannot undo Pope Benedictus' binding. Shaksep suggests other services she could provide but admits this particular task is beyond her abilities, cryptically noting that "power is a cage." Before departing, she expresses interest in Balthasar's soul and vanishes, leaving the standing stones scattered with black feathers and golden dust that slowly melt into iridescent pitch.
The revelation shatters Balthasar's remaining hope and leads his companions to a disturbing conclusion. If even Shaksep cannot break the binding, it must be impossibly strong—perhaps divinely strong. Baron Ricard, Baptiste, and Yakov all realize what Balthasar refuses to accept: Pope Benedictus might truly be the second coming of the Saviour, making the binding the word of God himself. Yakov grimly confirms what Balthasar finally grasps with horrified laughter—if the Saviour walks among them again, the last judgment must indeed be at hand. The end times have arrived.
Chapter 48: End Times
Alex trudges head down through miserable terrain, her feet destroyed by blisters and a twisted ankle from stepping in a rabbit hole. Despite desperately wanting to ride, she refuses Sunny's offer out of pride and damaged feelings over their strained friendship. The group travels along a boundary marked by crooked posts decorated with sheep skulls and iron circles—the fence marking the barony of Caliata, a region devastated by plague thirty years ago. Brother Diaz explains that the long pox killed a quarter of the population, followed by the even worse sighing sickness that left hundreds buried in pits throughout the province. The squabbling churches of East and West, for once acting together, declared the entire barony cursed and placed it under a joint papal and patriarchal interdict, evacuating it and forbidding entry until reprieved by divine intervention.
The tension between traveling companions has grown palpable. Monks and werewolves make unnatural traveling companions, and Brother Diaz and Vega wind each other up constantly, their previous intimacy creating an awkward friction now that they've rejoined the group. Brother Diaz complains about the dangers they face—werewolves, crab people, sorcerers—while fretting about his inevitable punishment. Vega dismisses his worries with characteristic bluntness, mocking priests who constantly announce end times as a way to fill pews, comparing them to merchants selling their wares. Alex tries to mediate while nursing her own wounds, both physical and emotional, feeling like a "greedy piece of shit" who ruins everything good by grasping for more.
Despite Brother Diaz's warnings about the forbidden zone and the burned-out villages they've passed, the group's resolve weakens when they crest a rise and see lights twinkling in a valley below. The promise of civilization—cooking smells, faint music, the possibility of a warm meal and shelter—proves too tempting to resist. Alex has silver scattered throughout her clothing (in purses, socks, and folded rags) taken from the bastards Vega recently killed, and Sunny suggests finding a hayloft to spend the night out of the weather. Vega practically dances at the prospect of lamb chops and gravy, howling at the sky with her pointed teeth gleaming.
Brother Diaz acknowledges that entering the cursed barony might not be the best idea—and taking Vega there might really not be the best idea—but after a helpless shrug, he admits defeat. The lure of simple comfort in the face of their desperate circumstances proves irresistible. As Vega knocks him through the forbidden fence and they descend toward the village, the chapter closes on the grim acknowledgment that whether or not these are truly the end times, the group has crossed yet another boundary they were meant to respect.
Chapter 49: Good Givers
The group finds themselves watching a traveling theatrical performance in the cursed village, featuring actors playing the Pope and the Patriarch of Troy in a bawdy morality play. Alex claps enthusiastically, explaining to Sunny her childhood love of theater—how the silly stories and costumes offered escape from hunger, debts, and violence, and how crowded performances provided perfect opportunities for lifting purses. She confesses she once dreamed of joining a traveling company, always on the move, leaving regrets behind, getting paid to be someone else. "That's all I wanted when I was little, to be someone else," she admits, the wistfulness revealing her deep-seated self-loathing. Meanwhile, Sunny wants desperately to tell Alex she likes her exactly as she is, that she's thought constantly about their kiss, but the moment has passed and silence has set like mortar between them.
The performance satirizes religious hypocrisy, with a sinful Pope being dragged to hell while the righteous Patriarch sermonizes on the twelve virtues, especially charity and generosity. The actors reveal they perform different versions depending on their audience—in the East the Pope is sinful and the Patriarch righteous, in the West they swap roles, and when uncertain they keep things vague to avoid torch-wielding mobs. Brother Diaz engages in theological debate about the nature of sin and forgiveness, troubled by the harsh judgment depicted. The Patriarch explains that the Pope's real sin isn't fornication but hypocrisy—preaching one thing while practicing another, judging others while riddled with sin themselves. Alex proves to be a "good giver," generously tipping the players with silver that hasn't been hidden in uncomfortable places.
The pleasant interlude takes a dark turn when the woman playing the Pope mentions another "good giver" who passed through recently—a man named Sabass wearing a ridiculous golden cloak. He was searching for a particular girl: Her Highness Alexia Pyrogenitus, long-lost heiress to the throne of Troy. The Patriarch comments that the story would make a fine play, while the Pope reveals that Sabass was offering quite a reward for information. Alex forces a laugh and claims she mixes with royalty daily, but the strain in her voice betrays her fear. Brother Diaz grows tense, Sunny feels the familiar prickling certainty of bad news, and even the dog seems to sense the shift in mood.
The players depart with benedictions and blessings, oblivious to how their casual information has shattered the group's brief moment of comfort. As Alex meets Sunny's eye and quickly looks away, she mutters under her breath about good fortune following them. "It'll be a fucking first," she says bitterly. The hunter in the golden cloak is close behind, tracking them through the cursed barony, and their brief respite has transformed into yet another reminder that they cannot escape their pursuers or their fates.
Chapter 50: Cart in a Bog
The group trudges through the forbidden barony of Caliata in a torrential rainstorm, the road half-washed away and turned to treacherous mud. Brother Diaz picks his footsteps with irritating care, complaining that after surviving werewolves, crab people, and sorcerers, he'll probably slip into a ditch and break his neck. The tension between him and Vega has reached a breaking point—she's nearly warmed to him at times (mostly while having sex with him), but since rejoining Alex and Sunny, he's reverted to being a prickly whiner with added stubborn bitterness, as if he hadn't quite realized he'd been lying with a werewolf until other people could notice. Vega's patience frays further as the nearly-full moon pulls at her, making her collar feel too tight, her body desperate to transform and hunt for "good meat." She has to constantly remind herself to keep the wolf muzzled.
Arguments erupt over who's being punished and what to do about their pursuers. Vega argues fiercely for turning the tables and attacking their enemies—falling on them when they least expect it, killing their strongest, breaking their spirit. Brother Diaz insists they must run since the odds are against them and he won't risk Princess Alexia's life. He reminds everyone that Her Holiness put him in charge, which only intensifies Vega's scorn. They stand face to face in the rain, both breathing fast, anger and attraction mingled dangerously, Vega beginning to growl. Alex intervenes by poking both of them in the chest, ordering Brother Diaz to stop riling the werewolf and telling Vega they're going to Troy, not Valhalla. She points out they're far outnumbered, Sunny's still injured, and Vega's their only real fighter.
The awkward confrontation gets interrupted when Sunny spots a structure through the rain—a jagged outline with a bell tower on a ridge to the south. Brother Diaz identifies it as possibly having a roof where they could shelter from the weather. The prospect of getting out of the endless rain proves immediately appealing to the bedraggled, soaked group. When Alex asks what happened between Brother Diaz and Vega, an awkward silence falls, but before either can answer, they focus on the potential refuge ahead.
Vega pushes her hair back and sets off toward the ruin, leading the way. The chapter title "Cart in a Bog" reflects both Vega's earlier complaint about Brother Diaz's conversational habits—seizing the reins and immediately driving into a bog—and the group's overall situation: stuck in difficult terrain, making poor progress, and unable to move forward or back without struggle. The promise of shelter draws them onward through the cursed province, their complicated relationships and dangerous circumstances following them through the rain.
Chapter 51: Vows
The group arrives at the Abbey of St. Demetrius, a ruined monastery where monks once treated the sick with selfless diligence until ordered to abandon the cursed province. Some remained even then to render last rites to the dying. A statue of the patron saint of healers stands in a niche above the gateway, his hand snapped off at the wrist—a fitting symbol of broken benedictions. Despite a wooden tablet bearing the seals of both Pope and Patriarch forbidding entrance on pain of excommunication, the group enters anyway. Sunny shrugs that she's never been "incommunicated," and Alex jokes that she's on speaking terms with a pope and two cardinals, so she can get them a dispensation. Inside the draughty hall, the roof still mostly holds and the floor remains dry, with dusty furniture undisturbed for decades.
Brother Diaz finds himself tormented by attraction to Vega as she shakes water from her hair and wrings out her clothes, wet fabric clinging to her body. He grips his blessed vial and mutters prayers for distraction, but everywhere he looks he finds temptation or uncomfortable reminders. He discovers that Sunny's pointed ear was clipped off with sheep shears by people who called her an enemy of God, leaving him struggling with the doctrinal classification of elves as enemies versus the reality of her humanity and heroism. Seeking refuge in the monastery's chapel, he kneels before a stained-glass window depicting the Saviour being broken on the wheel, trying to pray for guidance about his vow of celibacy and his relationship with Vega.
His prayer dissolves into wheedling and confession. He admits the temptation isn't just about physical pleasure but about the opportunity to be a different man—not necessarily better, but one he prefers. The man whose misbehavior landed him in the monastery in the first place. When Vega appears with a blanket, they have an honest conversation in which Brother Diaz acknowledges she's done nothing wrong—she's stayed true to herself and broken no vows, while he's betrayed his calling. "If you're a monster, at least you're an honest one," he tells her, while he's disgusted with himself. Despite her invitation to spend the night together under the blanket, he refuses, telling her it cannot happen again, cannot ever happen again, even as he glances toward the Saviour's face in the window.
Morning brings humiliation when Alex discovers Brother Diaz and Vega naked together on the chapel floor, having clearly broken his vow immediately after making it. His attempts at explanation collapse into admission that he has no excuse, especially given that it happened on the floor of a chapel. Sunny seems completely unsurprised, noting that Vega "gets in everywhere" like damp. Alex forgives him somewhat bitterly, suggesting she's jealous because he did what she hasn't got the guts to try—grab any shred of comfort with both hands. Brother Diaz reflects that nobody comes through a journey like this unchanged, and despite his failures, he's genuinely impressed by Alex's courage, commitment, and leadership. She's evolved from the jumpy, suspicious street thief he met in the Holy City into something more—perhaps not quite a princess, but as he notes with a grin, at least she's "a piece of shit who can read." Their shared laughter as they prepare to depart suggests that broken vows and hypocrisy might matter less than loyalty and survival in these desperate times.
Chapter 52: Pride
For the first time in weeks, Alex finds herself smiling as she steps through the gateway of the Abbey of St. Demetrius in daylight, reflecting on the strange turn her life has taken—from street thief to imperial heir, from hunted to hunter. Her brief moment of optimism dies instantly when she encounters Duke Sabas, superbly mounted and radiating pure pride, flanked by twin sorceresses, a werewolf Dane, a gaunt spear-wielding man-catcher, and a pack of hardened manhunters. Sabas introduces himself with a litany of titles and noble lineage, producing yet another papal scroll confirming Alex's identity before contemptuously trampling it into the mud. He sneers at her claim to the throne, unable to believe that someone so "short, so shabby, so lacking in any mark of distinction" could have a better claim than him, simply because of the room she was born in. Alex's defiant retort about him being given all his titles by his mother only enrages the duke further.
Brother Diaz attempts to lead Alex back toward the monastery gate, but they find themselves surrounded and outnumbered ten to one. The invisible Sunny assesses the desperate situation, noting the twin sorceresses, the werewolf, and something suspicious hidden beneath Sabas's great cloak. Despite her injuries from being horse-kicked earlier, she begins sabotaging the hunters' weapons—loosening a crossbow bolt, replacing a sword loop, undoing Sabas's saddle straps—blowing with the wind as she does her best work. When Vega swaggers through to defend Alex, the werewolf Dane challenges her, and the two lycanthropes engage in a savage battle that tears through the graveyard, shattering headstones and transforming mid-fight. The duel takes an unexpected turn when their combat becomes simultaneously violent and sexual, the two werewolves rolling away into the undergrowth in the midst of both transformation and coupling, leaving an awkward silence in their wake.
The moment the werewolves disappear, Sabas orders his crossbowmen to kill Alex and Brother Diaz, but the first bolt flies wildly off-target thanks to Sunny's earlier sabotage—a miracle Brother Diaz attributes to St. Beatrix. The miracle multiplies as corpses begin clawing their way from the graves, attacking the hunters. Balthasar appears among the trees, ripped trousers held up by frayed twine, dramatically announcing himself as one of the three best necromancers in Europe as he raises an army of the dead from the disturbed graveyard. The sorceresses counter-attack with geomancy and aeromancy, crushing and slicing corpses with waves of earth and flying gravestones. Just as the hunters begin to overwhelm them, Yakob of Thorn comes thundering through on horseback, his sword flashing in the morning sun.
The chapter vividly establishes Sabas as perhaps the most insufferable of Alex's cousins—where Marcian had rage and Constans had greed, Sabas embodies pure aristocratic pride and entitlement. Through Sunny's invisible interventions, Balthasar's necromantic prowess, and the unexpected werewolf romance, the tone balances dark humor with genuine peril, while the arrival of Yakob suggests the tide may finally be turning in favor of the Chapel of the Holy Expediency.
Chapter 53: Our Latest Last Stand
Yakob of Thorn charges into battle with deadly efficiency, his surprise attack worth "a thousand men" as he cuts through Sabas's hunters with practiced brutality. The knight who once prayed endlessly during battles now grits his aching teeth and saves his breath, abandoning both prayers and curses to focus on pure survival. His horse does most of the work as his aging, perpetually wounded body struggles to keep up, but fortune—or perhaps an invisible elf—seems to favor them when Sabas's saddle slides off his horse at the crucial moment, dumping the duke unceremoniously onto the ground. Balthasar and Baptiste follow Yakob through the gateway on horseback in a charge that feels like a fitting summation of his career: once he led twelve hundred men-at-arms to lift the siege of Kerak, now he leads a necromancer in an identity crisis and a disgruntled jack-of-all-trades into a monastery without even a door.
The group retreats into the monastery's cobwebbed infirmary, a plague house filled with decayed cots and ancient corpses. Yakob and Brother Diaz desperately brace the ruined door while Balthasar, his mind racing with magical theory after observing the twin sorceresses, realizes they're working identical techniques despite supposedly practicing opposite disciplines—a revelation that suggests earth and air might not be opposites but composed of the same fundamental matter. The ground begins to shake as one of the geomancers attacks, cracks spreading across the walls in star patterns, and Balthasar hastily animates the plague victims as defenders. The ancient, desiccated corpses prove nearly useless—too brittle, too papery, falling apart as they hobble toward the door—drawing Baptiste's scathing criticism of Europe's top necromancer. As the sorceress brings the walls down around them, the group flees deeper into the monastery.
They burst through a doorway into the abandoned church, its roof long gone, great vaults black against the sky, and the entire back wall collapsed off the cliffside into empty air. The infirmary collapses behind them in an ear-splitting crash, and they emerge coughing from the dust and rubble. Alex nearly falls off the ragged cliff edge when a section drops away beneath her feet, but Brother Diaz catches her wrist. Baptiste grabs his trousers, Balthasar catches Baptiste, forming a desperate human chain that nearly comes apart when Brother Diaz's salvaged trousers begin to rip. They manage to haul Alex back over the crumbling brink and collapse against the altar stone, staring at the long drop, only to find at least a dozen hunters emerging through the church's main door, along with the twin sorceresses and Sabas in his absurd high cloak.
Sabas slow-claps their brave effort, his valet scraping along beside him covered in dust and clutching spears, and announces that they've run out of road. The chapter captures the desperate, darkly comic nature of the Chapel of the Holy Expediency's third "last stand" on this trip alone, with Baptiste questioning when they can start simply calling them "stands." Through Yakob's weary competence, Balthasar's magical epiphanies amid chaos, Sunny's invisible sabotage, and Brother Diaz's surprising resourcefulness, the group demonstrates that while they may be outmatched and out-planned, they excel at improvisation and sheer stubborn survival. The crumbling monastery becomes a perfect metaphor for their situation—ancient foundations giving way, nowhere left to retreat, caught between armed enemies and a fatal drop.
Chapter 54: The Angel of Troy
Sunny sits up painfully in an old storeroom after being blasted from the colonnade and tumbling through a patch of nettles, her ribs throbbing, mouth bleeding, body stung all over. The tall, lean man-catcher stalks through the doorway with his forked spear, crooning in a deeply unpleasant voice that he knows she's hiding. Sunny snatches a breath and disappears, pressing herself against the wall as his spear whips through the air in great arcs, the points passing within inches of her nose and leaving a maddening tickle. Running out of air, face hot, lungs burning, she watches cross-eyed as he prowls the room, certain that there's no one he can't lay his hands on. Just as he begins to turn away and she gasps in air, he spins and flings a heavy net over her. Trapped and unable to hold her breath, Sunny finds the man-catcher squatting beside her, crooning as he pinches her remaining ear tip, declaring that from now on they'll call him the Elf Catcher because she'll fetch quite a price.
Meanwhile, in the ruined church, Yakob challenges Sabas to single combat, appealing to the duke's bloated pride with an offer of honor and a duel to the death. Despite his valet's protests and the complete tactical stupidity of accepting, Sabas cannot resist proving he deserves his advantages. He removes his gilded cloak with a flourish, spreading mighty white wings across the nave—the Angel of Troy, his mother's greatest creation, wings stitched from a poulterer's experiments. Yakob bursts out laughing, explaining he's seen real angels and demons, and these aren't the same as "stitching the poulterer's offcuts to your back." The duel begins with Sabas using his wings to gain devastating aerial advantage, beating down on Yakob, cracking his shield, gouging his shoulder and hip. The old knight struggles against the winged opponent who dances and strikes from above, finally impaling Yakob through the chest with his spear. But Yakob simply stands back up, blood staining his shirt, announcing that it's sore but they're not done yet.
Back in the storeroom, Baron Ricard appears, looking a decade younger than usual, offering the man-catcher his life in exchange for Sunny. When the man-catcher throws another net and thrusts his spear, the Baron transforms into black vapor, the net falling through him. The smoke reforms behind the hunter, and Ricard's arms lock around him with supernatural strength. The vampire's transformation becomes monstrous—his neck twisting like a snake, his mouth unfolding impossibly wide with legions of teeth—as he drains the man-catcher dry, leaving a desiccated corpse. Sunny feels both grateful and deeply unsettled as the Baron, now looking disturbingly young and beautiful after his feast, graciously apologizes for his breach of etiquette and helps her from the net.
In the church, Sabas orders everyone killed, and the hunters attack in earnest. Alex, Brother Diaz, Balthasar, and Baptiste huddle behind the altar as arrows and crossbow bolts fly. Baptiste finally gets a crossbow loaded and shoots one of the sorceresses directly between the eyes, but this only enrages her sister, the more powerful geomancer. The ground begins to shake violently as the woman channels her fury into magic that threatens to collapse the entire church. Brother Diaz has a sudden revelation—the church floor is paved with the dead from four plagues, buried in every inch of consecrated ground. Balthasar leaps onto the split altar stone and engages in a magical duel with the geomancer, using her own earth-shaking power to help him rip hundreds of plague corpses from their decades-old graves. With Princess Alexia and Baptiste bracing him on the crumbling altar, Balthasar performs an awe-inspiring feat of necromancy, raising a legion of the long dead without book, circle, rod, or rune—only pure force of will. The floor collapses into a massive pit as the rotted mass of corpses boils up like a breach in the ceiling of Hell itself, dragging hunters, sorceresses, valet, and finally the winged Sabas—feathers ripped from his wings, screaming and bloody—down into the fetid vortex. When it's over, the group clings to the remains of the altar in stunned silence, the nave reduced to a great pit, as Brother Diaz forces his locked jaw open enough to breathe a single word: "Fuck."
Chapter 55: A Miraculous Medicine
Alex and Sunny sit huddled together on Sabas's carved bench, wrapped in his surprisingly soft gilded cloak, drinking his wine and staring into his fire at the camp the dead duke left behind. Sunny, who once thought any wine was too much, has had an epiphany that it's a "miraculous medicine"—the more you drink, the better it tastes, transforming from feet-flavor to "summer meadow in a bottle." Her many hurts have faded to whatever's, replaced by a dizzy contentment and warm love for a world that might hate her, but what the hell. Alex marvels that she survived without being stuck with a spear, hacked with a sword, or dragged into a plague pit by a legion of the dead, while Yakob grunts in pain as Baptiste stitches the massive wounds in his chest and back. Brother Diaz reflects that one could think God must have a purpose for them, though Yakob and Baptiste warn against that line of thinking—it leads to believing every whim is part of His plan, justifying any outrage.
Baron Ricard, looking noticeably younger after drinking his fill from the man-catcher, notes that Sabas's valet kept an excellent cellar, and Alex jokes that her uncle once told her one can always make more dukes, but a good servant is a rare treasure. The Baron glances at Sunny with gleaming eyes, calling the man-catcher's blood "a most intoxicating vintage," making Sunny nervously clear her throat. As wine bottles pass around the fire, Alex and Sunny find themselves holding hands under the dead angel's cloak, a comfortable warmth neither wants to let go of. The group discusses their next moves—heading for the coast, finding a ship to Troy, hoping Duke Michael made it back and is preparing for Alex's arrival. Brother Diaz suggests that maybe cheering crowds will await them, asking if hope isn't the foremost of the twelve virtues, but Alex remains unconvinced, worried about her remaining cousin Orcadius, the eldest and most powerful.
Vega suddenly lurches from the bushes, wrapped in a filthy blanket, her hair tangled with mud, leaves, and twigs, her tattooed face marked with warnings. She plucks the wine bottle from Sunny's hand, teasing that last time Sunny had wine she lost her dignity. When asked about the Dane, Vega proudly announces they mated like beasts of the forest during the full moon, and she couldn't have stopped if she'd wanted to. She grimaces as she sits, joking that she feels like she's "fucked the bell tower of St. Stephen's," and notes the Dane is likely "limping back to fucking Denmark to stick his cock in a glacier." She raises her bottle to Balthasar when she learns about the plague pit, two professional competitors recognizing the quality of each other's work. The revelation comes out that Brother Diaz and Vega have coupled four times, leading to shocked reactions and bawdy jokes from the group, with Balthasar declaring he's "heard it all" and Baptiste singing a mock confession about a monk's member accidentally going up a lycanthrope's twat.
As the wine flows and inhibitions fade, Sunny stands to make a toast, declaring that life is bitter and they must grasp at any joy they can—before promptly vomiting all down herself. Alex helps her to Sabas's gaudy tent, and in the darkness filled with the glow of firelight and gleam of gilt, they pause on the bed. Sunny, drunk and breathless, kisses Alex gently, then tells her she can go back to the others if she wants, that she'll be fine alone as she's used to it. But Alex echoes Sunny's own words—the world's a bitter place, they've got to grasp any joy they can. They kiss again, lips and tongue and warm breaths and fingers in hair and legs tangled together, the tent spinning pleasantly—until Sunny twists free and is sick all over the floor. The chapter captures the group's desperate need for connection, comfort, and joy after surviving yet another brush with death, finding warmth and humor and unexpected tenderness amid the chaos of their violent lives.