Morecote, Erewaker and the fading Sigric travel with the last yew cutting, hoping a special Rising can restore a people thought extinct. The route tests more than endurance. Sigric's poisoned mind slips into stories, Morecote's strength cannot solve every obstacle and Erewaker must inherit responsibility before she feels ready.
A faerie clique drives the journey toward a dawnglove grove. Morecote and Sigric die buying Erewaker time, and the ritual asks her to surrender a relic that preserves memory across the aurora. She completes the Rising through grief, determination and the belief that sacrifice must still be capable of making life.
The newborn Ferrafor opens her eyes amid death. The faeries have manipulated the rite for another purpose, and Erewaker does not survive to guide what she restored. Dreams elsewhere echo the event, suggesting that the Omenpaths carry more than travellers. The resurrection succeeds, but its truth is inheritance without protection.