The students reach Goldmeadow and meet Brigid, an archer who remembers the struggle against Oona but prefers the ordinary work of training a watch. She directs them toward Maralen. Before they can leave safely, Isilu's advancing night reaches the settlement and turns familiar citizens into their Shadowmoor selves.
The transformed kithkin fight from fear and fierce communal instinct. Brigid is pulled across the boundary and immediately defends the people she had opposed moments earlier. Abigale recognises that the attackers are not corrupted copies. They are frightened versions of the same people, responding to a world that suddenly makes different dangers feel absolute.
The group escapes toward the Wanderwine, now aware that every moving border can change an ally's priorities. Tam insists Maralen remains their best hope of reaching home. The route east looks simple in steady sunlight, but Isilu is walking behind them and the border refuses to remain where anyone expects it.