The Red Raven Sleeps in her Birdcage

As Skellig recedes behind her, Casca thinks of Guts and cries out to him, only to wake mid-thought in opulent quarters, unsure whether the moment was a dream. Four attendants dress her in a crimson gown, and she carries herself with quiet composure. Led outside beneath the radiant World Tree, she and the servants pause at the sight of it before a stir reveals the Band of the Falcon marching off to another campaign. The praise heaped on the soldiers moves Casca to tears, and her worried attendants usher her away.

Days pass in gilded comfort as Casca crowns children with flower wreaths, dines on steak and tea, and bathes. While rinsing her face she is struck by broken fragments of her time on the island, fleeting glimpses of Schierke, Farnese, Ivalera, Danan, Puck, Serpico, Isma, and Isidro, though their meaning escapes her. That night, alone in the moonlight, she snaps: she flings off the servants restraining her, hurls a vase at the summoned guards, wrenches a sword from one, and cuts off his arm. Thinking of escape and of Guts, she is overpowered and seized before she can flee.

Casca briefly stirs awake, then sinks back into sleep. Beyond the castle in Falconia, Locus and Grunbeld stand with Irvine as he kneels before Griffith. Asked how things stand, Irvine reports that the caged fledgling now rests peacefully and cannot get away. Zodd hardly moves, his arms folded, while Griffith murmurs about the East and looks toward the World Tree with a smirk.