Emory and Seth rescue Thea from the fog. Emory reveals that she knows Thea tried to kill Hui and murdered Adil. Thea replies that Emory does not have the right to accuse a human, but Emory claims she is proud to be a simulacrum because the humans—Thea and Hephaestus—have done nothing but lie. Thea says that she had no reason to hurt Adil because he took her to Blackheath and showed her the truth about Hephaestus and Niema’s experiments. When Thea asks about him, Emory says she sedated Hephaestus because he murdered Niema.

They return to the village, and Thea says that they must kill Hephaestus to stop the fog. Emory says that the villagers have decided not to execute Hephaestus because they do not believe in murder. Instead, they will flee to the cauldron garden together. Thea says that 61 people must stay behind because the garden will not hold them all, and to her surprise, villagers start volunteering to sacrifice themselves. Thea tells them to tell her what happened to