The chap­ter “Sea of Ice” opens with the Giantship *Star­fare’s Gem* bat­tling a vio­lent storm in the frigid Soul­biter Sea. The wind tears through the sails, threat­en­ing to destroy the ves­sel, but the stur­dy dromond with­stands the onslaught and begins to out­pace the dan­ger. As the ship nav­i­gates thin­ning ice floes, the imme­di­ate per­il recedes, but Covenant remains obliv­i­ous to the chaos around him, con­sumed by his des­per­ate attempt to save Lin­den’s life.

Lin­den lies near death, her body pale and unre­spon­sive, as Covenant fran­ti­cal­ly tries to revive her. Ignor­ing offers of help from the Giants, he rubs her limbs and demands warm water, his fear dri­ving him to near hys­te­ria. When Pitch­wife attempts to admin­is­ter dia­mon­draught, Lin­den fails to swal­low, prompt­ing Covenant to resort to des­per­ate mea­sures, includ­ing mouth-to-mouth resus­ci­ta­tion. His efforts are fraught with ten­sion as he bat­tles his own ver­ti­go and the ship’s vio­lent move­ments.

A break­through comes when the cooks pre­pare a stone stew­pot filled with warm water. Covenant chan­nels his wild mag­ic to heat it, care­ful­ly con­trol­ling his pow­er to avoid harm­ing Lin­den. The intense heat revives her, and she begins cough­ing, regain­ing con­scious­ness. As she recov­ers, she weak­ly strips off her wet clothes and drinks the dia­mon­draught, her strength slow­ly return­ing. Covenant, over­whelmed with relief, hides his face against Pitch­wife, his emo­tions raw.

Lin­den’s first words upon wak­ing reveal her lin­ger­ing anguish over their inabil­i­ty to help oth­ers in the Soul­biter. Covenant explains that the fig­ures they saw were illu­sions, and aid­ing them would have led to damna­tion. The chap­ter clos­es with Covenant and Lin­den grap­pling with the moral weight of their choic­es, their sur­vival tem­pered by the haunt­ing con­se­quences of their deci­sions.