It takes hours for Olivia and Djivan to carry the unconscious Liliana and Amelia to the Gnarly Tree, where Isolde and Natasha are waiting for them. Then it's down into Witch's Rock, where a stone ritual chamber awaits.

Natasha's diagnosis is grim: the symbiotic spirit that's been part of Liliana since she was conceived has been torn away from her, and she's in shock. Without the symbiont her own spirit is unraveling, and the Eeee will die from it.

Amy wakes up to tell what she saw and sensed when she first found Lili. It isn't clear to the others yet just what the reason was for stealing Lili's spirit, but they set it aside to work on stabilizing her.

Natasha uses the enchanted chalk to summon Buffy, who immediately brings forward one of the orphan spirits from Valicross' prison: an eight-year-old Eeee girl named Claire who wanted to be a dancer. Natasha links with Buffy, using some of her power to create a temporary merging of the spirit to Liliana.

During this, Amelia 'hears' the screams of more tormented, captured spirits. Then Lili wakes up, responding to Olivia's entreaties to do so.