Over the Sea of Himaat, the Sweet Destiny is still in pursuit of the Siren's Tail. Elise holds a meeting in a make-shift "war room", discussing plans. It is agreed upon that a small lead group led by de Ayde will fly in on rakhtors to secretly board the Siren's Tail in advance, followed by the more obvious arrival of the Sweet Destiny, thus hopefully undercutting the Eeee's chances of being well prepared to meet them. Haut Glas and one of Elise's house guard fill out the remainder of this group of three.

The Sweet Destiny catches up with the Siren's Tail, and Elise's guards attempt to board. As she flies over on her winged drokar, Secrets, one of its legs is entangled in some rigging, and Elise cuts the rigging free, causing the deck to lurch. One of Elise's guards falls to his doom. A female Eeee falls as well, and Elise swoops down to cripple her wing, so she plummets to certain doom. On her second attempt to land on the deck, Secrets is tangled again, this time catching a wing and apparently injuring it. Elise's remaining guards are struck down, but she finishes off two bats on the deck, only to be hit by another with a crossbow. She bids Secrets to fly away, then goes belowdecks.

Elise hears a click behind her, but is distracted by haut Glas – bloodied and on the floor of a room off the below-decks hall – pleading with some unseen malefactor. She attempts to hide in the head, but it turns out that the cause of the click she heard was the crossbowman, who had pursued her belowdecks – and having her cornered in the privy, he fires.