Nashi had continued recording and searching inside the House rather than waiting helplessly. Tamiyo’s scroll preserved more than information: it carried an echo capable of speaking with him. The presence offered a piece of his mother while making separation almost impossible. Kaito had been an older-brother figure; Reckoner connections let Nashi avoid questions about grief. Before the House, he collected stories across Omenpaths while avoiding family at home.
Reunion did not erase resentment. Nashi’s friends had come because they loved him, but their late discovery of his absence confirmed how alone he had felt. Rescue required acknowledging that wound instead of demanding gratitude for entering danger after him.
The scroll also attracted Valgavoth. Memory, grief and hope provided levers the House understood. Tamiyo’s echo could guide the group and steady Nashi, yet it could also be trapped, threatened and used to keep everyone moving toward the demon’s chosen room. The Cult of Valgavoth confined Tamiyo's living scroll in a ghost-trap and drew stories from her memory to help its master seek other worlds. That captive voice called Nashi onward, and by the time his friends reached the cult's chamber, freeing her meant confronting an exploitation of his grief rather than simply carrying the scroll home.
Elsewhere in the House, Kaito encountered Jace Beleren, who was searching for Vraska and their young companion, Loot. They survived a nightmare together, but their uneasy cooperation ended when Jace abandoned Kaito in a trap after seeing an image of Vraska and the child in danger. Kaito escaped by planeswalking to Ravnica with a splinter from the House, giving the allies outside a material link to the rescue party.