Basri hired Mahitab and Niharet to find Temmet, bringing young embalmers on an expedition he hoped would help restore Naktamun. An injury tested his protective promise. Hope did not remove the cost borne by his companions.
At the tomb, the Chitin Court's followers demanded Temmet's body. Niharet revealed her allegiance and restrained Basri. His search for unity had brought him among people whose ideas of restoration were incompatible.
Basri prayed, and Ketramose arrived. The new god reclaimed Temmet and cleansed his corruption, naming a future of service together. Oketra had not returned. Her son answered instead, while Mahitab and Niharet's relationship remained broken by their opposed commitments. Basri's pilgrimage concerns the corrupted Temmet and the Chitin Court, not a literal restoration of Oketra to life. Niharet's allegiance betrays his trust and fractures the friendship with Mahitab; Ketramose reclaims Temmet while offering a future that cannot undo all that has already happened.