Chap­ter VII, In the tur­moil of occu­pied France, on Novem­ber 23, 1944, Addie, also known as Ade­line, finds her­self impris­oned by Ger­man sol­diers in a cold, dark cell on the out­skirts of Orleans. Despite her best efforts to remain unno­ticed, the fact that she is a woman draws unwant­ed atten­tion, lead­ing to her bru­tal treat­ment. The weight of her past choic­es press­es down on her as she sits in cap­tiv­i­ty, the deci­sion to return to France from Boston, moti­vat­ed by pride and a desire to recon­nect with the lega­cy of the pre­vi­ous war, now feel­ing like a grave mis­take. What start­ed as an effort to assist the resis­tance by fer­ry­ing vital secrets through occu­pied France, hid­den behind the false secu­ri­ty of anonymi­ty, ends in betray­al and cap­ture.

As she sits alone in the cell, the real­i­ty of her sit­u­a­tion sinks in, and she is forced to reflect on the deci­sions that led her to this point. The illu­sion of invis­i­bil­i­ty, once her shield, now feels like a fan­ta­sy, leav­ing her vul­ner­a­ble to the very forces she hoped to elude. Addie’s intro­spec­tion grows as she grap­ples with the per­son­al and col­lec­tive loss­es of wartime France, along­side her inter­nal bat­tle: the desire to be remem­bered ver­sus the haunt­ing fear of becom­ing com­plete­ly for­got­ten. Her return to France, once fueled by a sense of duty and the urge to make a dif­fer­ence, seems now like a reck­less choice, one dri­ven by emo­tions of nos­tal­gia and pride, rather than strate­gic wis­dom. She ques­tions whether the risks she took to help the resis­tance were worth it and whether her con­tri­bu­tions, though well-inten­tioned, will ever be rec­og­nized in the grand scheme of things.

As the days drag on, Addie’s thoughts turn to an unusu­al object she’s car­ried with her for near­ly three decades: a mys­ti­cal wood­en ring. For the past 29 years, she had avoid­ed using it, wary of its pow­ers and the unknown con­se­quences of invok­ing the being or enti­ty con­nect­ed to it—Luc. In the depths of her des­per­a­tion, with the walls of her cell clos­ing in, she final­ly decides to use the ring. It is as if she’s come to a break­ing point, ready to face her deep­est fears—the fear of being erased from mem­o­ry, nev­er to be remem­bered by any­one, a per­ma­nent casu­al­ty of war. The moment the ring is acti­vat­ed, Luc’s pres­ence fills the room, and with it, a strange still­ness and sus­pend­ed sense of time.

Luc’s arrival marks a sud­den shift in the atmos­phere, and it feels as though the world out­side their exchange ceas­es to exist. Their inter­ac­tion is thick with ten­sion, as the weight of their long, com­plex his­to­ry becomes appar­ent. The con­ver­sa­tion between them reveals the com­pli­cat­ed nature of their bond, one that spans beyond human life­times, root­ed in deci­sions that still affect Addie’s present predica­ment. Luc express­es dis­dain for the wartime set­ting, con­demn­ing the bru­tal­i­ty and suf­fer­ing around them, yet he remains moral­ly ambigu­ous, unable or unwill­ing to offer clear answers about his role in Addie’s fate. His pres­ence serves as both a temp­ta­tion and a chal­lenge, press­ing Addie to reck­on with her deci­sions, includ­ing the escape she is now plan­ning. Despite the seem­ing advan­tage Luc holds over her, Addie refus­es to capit­u­late, assert­ing her will to escape, demon­strat­ing resilience in the face of over­whelm­ing odds.

This chap­ter mas­ter­ful­ly inter­twines his­tor­i­cal real­i­ty with the super­nat­ur­al, show­cas­ing the stark con­trast between the bru­tal world of World War II and the mys­ti­cal pow­ers that con­nect Addie to Luc. The themes of resis­tance and per­son­al iden­ti­ty emerge strong­ly, as Addie grap­ples with the ghosts of the past and the choic­es she made in pur­suit of auton­o­my. Her inner conflict—her vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty against the fierce deter­mi­na­tion to main­tain her freedom—is cap­tured against the back­drop of war’s harsh­ness. Addie’s fight for her own agency, cou­pled with the mys­te­ri­ous nature of her con­nec­tion to Luc, cre­ates a deeply lay­ered nar­ra­tive. This chap­ter not only explores the per­son­al tur­moil of an indi­vid­ual caught in history’s sweep­ing cur­rents but also delves into the intri­cate dance between pow­er, free­dom, and the super­nat­ur­al forces that gov­ern their lives. Addie’s strug­gle for con­trol and the loom­ing pres­ence of Luc raise crit­i­cal ques­tions about fate, choice, and the cost of auton­o­my in a world torn apart by war.