i
- Ma Kilman continues to brew concoctions to cure Philoctete's sore.
- She goes to Mass, and as she prays her rosary, she mentally runs through all the healing herbs she knows—but she cannot remember the cure.
- Not to be deterred, she keeps on working her memory as she moves through her religious rites and gossips with friends outside the church.
ii
- The narrator tells us about a secret plant—a super disgusting secret plant—that grows at the foot of a cedar.
- Ma Kilman is drawn from the church and climbs through the landscape to find the source of the stench. When she sees a line of ants on the ground, she realizes that they are leading her.
iii
- Now we step back a moment to learn about the origin of this plant that smells like Philoctete's rotting wound.
- And guess what? A sea-swift is involved again, this one having carried a seed in its belly on an epic journey "from its antipodal shore." It just knew it had a mission to bring the cure for a wound that had not yet happened.
- She survives great hardships to make it to the island, where she drops the seed in the sand and then dies. Thanks, birdie.
- The seed takes root and gains strength at the foot of the cedars.