Lin­den Avery, dri­ven by des­per­a­tion, nav­i­gates the pas­sages of Rev­el­stone as water from Glim­mer­mere is chan­neled into the Keep to quench the Bane­fire. The Giants and Haruchai have engi­neered an effi­cient route for the water, which now flows toward the sacred enclo­sure where the Bane­fire still burns. Linden’s plan to extin­guish the Clave’s pow­er stems from her real­iza­tion that Covenant’s intend­ed self-sac­ri­fice would only serve Lord Foul. Despite her efforts to stop him, Covenant refus­es her inter­ven­tion, leav­ing her dis­traught and ques­tion­ing her own motives.

Lin­den reflects on her failed attempt to save Covenant by men­tal­ly dom­i­nat­ing him, an act she now rec­og­nizes as moral­ly rep­re­hen­si­ble, akin to the Ravers’ cor­rup­tion. Hor­ri­fied by her own actions, she con­sid­ers sac­ri­fic­ing her­self in the Bane­fire to atone for her mis­takes. How­ev­er, Find­ail inter­venes, urg­ing her to recon­sid­er for Covenant’s sake, as his sur­vival depends on her pres­ence. This moment of clar­i­ty forces Lin­den to con­front her guilt and aban­don her self-destruc­tive impulse, though she remains emo­tion­al­ly shat­tered.

Mean­while, the Sand­gor­gon Nom aids in divert­ing Glimmermere’s waters under the First’s guid­ance, demon­strat­ing unex­pect­ed obe­di­ence. Lin­den stays to over­see the task, wrestling with trust in Nom’s altered behav­ior after its encounter with the Raver. The First departs to tend to the wound­ed, leav­ing Lin­den to ensure the water’s suc­cess­ful flow. Despite her inner tur­moil, she focus­es on the prac­ti­cal demands of the moment, though her thoughts linger on Covenant’s fate and her own moral fail­ings.

The chap­ter con­cludes with Linden’s reluc­tant accep­tance of her role in the after­math of Covenant’s ordeal. Though she is urged to tend to the injured, she remains fix­at­ed on the Sandgorgon’s work, seek­ing solace in action. Her jour­ney through Rev­el­stone mir­rors her inter­nal struggle—between despair and duty, self-con­dem­na­tion and the need to per­se­vere. The flow­ing water sym­bol­izes a frag­ile hope, even as Lin­den grap­ples with the con­se­quences of her choic­es and the weight of her respon­si­bil­i­ties.