Despite all attempts to save her, Meri is succumbing to her injuries. In the time it takes her to pass away and drift out of consciousness forever (and her soul to eventually drift into the Keywork), she is replaying all of the great times she’s spent with Sirius and living in her own fantasy dreams of how their life could have been. This is her short-lived heaven.

Meanwhile, in his grief, Sirius worries tremendously about whether she’ll make it to the Samaritaine (the second level of the Keywork, the perfect utopia Sirius glimpsed while being nestled by Evagria), or if she’ll otherwise exist forever in purgatory as a Key Entity.