The woman wakes up and heads along the streets of Hampseth, her city, in order to answer the call of the ruler. She thinks about her lover, who will never be around to poke at or tease her again. She eventually gets to Karlan Hall and is allowed in by soldiers, into the building once built for the governor, before the ruler seized it. Now, she waits in a sitting room, and after a while, she asks a servant when the ruler will come meet her. Eventually, the ruler overhears their conversation and comes out herself.

The woman and the ruler introduce themselves to each other, talking about the woman’s lover, whom they knew in common. The ruler says she liked having him around, as he was both smart and skillful, though she doesn’t know exactly what happened to him, other than that it was the result of gang violence. The ruler pledges to find out more. She then addresses the matter of their meeting, which is that the ruler wants the woman, a Malian crafter, to work with her in order to cast a spell that can raise the dead. The woman pushes back, saying it’s both dangerous and unethical. After some back and forth, the ruler provides papers showing that the woman’s lover once agreed to do it, before his death. She looks though them, looking at the ingredients he prepared back then. The woman says she needs time to figure out the rest of it. The ruler promises permanent employment if she succeeds.

The woman walks home alone, cautious of the city and its thieves. She goes back to her apartment, which used to belong to her lover and his family. She wishes he was back, and she contemplates raising the dead, raising him, though she wonders if he would be the same. She realizes she can’t actually do it, as she tries to sleep on her couch. In the morning, she writes a letter to the ruler to decline her request and drops it off at Karlan Hall. She spends the day job-searching all throughout the city but to no avail. When she gets free food from the nuns later, she runs into the ruler who asks her to walk with her. They go to a cafe, where the ruler orders food for the woman and resumes their conversation about raising the dead. The woman asks who the ruler wants to bring back. Meanwhile, they have a delicious cake which reminds the woman of her lover who had it before. The ruler finally confesses that she wants her wife back, who was taken hostage, tortured, and killed by another nation. She believes that her love will survive even through reanimation and reminds the woman that her lover thought it was possible. Later, the woman goes back home and crawls into bed.

Days later, the woman gets a bag of money and a piece of scrap paper which asks for her help. She goes to get the ingredients as requested. She then goes to the church, where the woman she calls sister lives and works. There, the woman greets her and provides her bowls of food as a gift. While they eat, the woman asks for her sister’s advice on whether to help the ruler raise the dead. Her sister immediately rebuts, saying that it goes against Malian traditions and causes damage to every soul involved. She says that if the woman raises her lover, which was her sister’s brother, then she would kill her herself. The woman leaves and goes back to bed, committed to the task despite what her sister said.

The woman is awoken by a thud. When she looks around, she sees a stack of books, a new volume which contains crafts of grief and longing. She flips through it and finds a spell to call dead spirits with less risk, albeit less permanence. She believes it can be an alternative to the ruler’s request. Later, she goes to the cemetery with the ruler, where both the ruler’s wife and the woman’s lover are buried, and tells the ruler about her plan. The ruler is hesitant, but the woman convinces her to try it at first.

At the ruler’s wife’s grave, the woman prepares her spell, which also involves cutting herself and offering her blood, from her heart. Soon enough, the ruler’s wife appears as a ghost, and they finally meet. The woman then does the same for her lover and gets to talk to him. He compliments her skills and says he’ll always be with her no matter what. He tells her to take the ruler’s job and keep crafting. Now, both the woman and the ruler are alone, and they go back to Karlen Hall. There, the ruler lets her sleep in a room, and the day after, she offers her a job as a Malian crafter, with compensation, room, and board, as well as all the space she needs for her things. Together, they seal the deal, and have tea.