Overall, this was a rather slow episode. The calm before the impending storm, if you will.
Chakuro’s voiceover speaks in the past tense, so we know that the upcoming fight may not go very well for the people of Falaina. However no one wants to die without fighting their hardest, so all the Marked persons on the Mud Whale (even children) are undergoing emergency battle training.
We learn the individual with the strange helmet walking around is Elder Rasha, and it seems like she’s known for being a little eccentric. When Suou and his aides have a meeting, Elder Rasha shows up and reminds Suou that if any children die in the upcoming fight, their blood will be on his hands. Elder Rasha suggests to the entire group that they be mindful that since they as Unmarked are unable to fight, they have a certain responsibility to uphold when asking others to fight when they themselves cannot.
The episode moves to Ouni who is sitting with his friends on a quiet part of the Mud Whale. There’s a flashback to how Ouni and his friend Nibi first met. Within the flashback it’s revealed that Ouni just one day appeared on the Mud Whale – he had no parents or family that anyone knew of, so his origins were a mystery.
Lykos, having made new clothes for herself from some new garments that were gifted to her by some girls her age, gives Chakuro an outfit that she made for him. Later Suou and his aides discuss whether the community should go ahead with their traditional Sand Returning Ceremony.
The next day Suou gives the people another pep talk about the upcoming battle, and it turns into the start of the Sand Returning Ceremony thanks to Chakuro and his friends. As the sun starts to go down, Chakuro, Lykos, Ouni and some others release sand into the air while thinking of the loved one they lost in the 
attack a few days prior.
That evening the still-nameless guard captain bumps into his wife. She gets upset when her husband gives her a message from the Council of Elders: be prepared to kill herself. However she’s not upset about the message itself, but more that her husband appears to give little to no thought about her well-being; he only wishes that she not kill herself in an “ugly” manner. Apparently the guard captain uses the nous, but his wife does not?
Atop a perch near the top of the Mud Whale, Chakuro meets a young girl who looks like Nelli, but is actually her twin sister Emma. Emma too has wings, except that hers are larger and shinier than her sister’s. Emma wants Chakuro to promise that he’ll never leave the Mud Whale, but he doesn’t promise the young girl anything. Emma also shares that Nelli has gone back to “Mama” (Nous Falaina).
Not long after Emma flies off into the sky, a sandstorm rolls in while the inhabitants of the Mud Whale are putting together their final preparations. A sailing group prepares to launch their boats into the sand ocean, but Nibi comes down to the launch area at the last minute and insists on joining the raiding party. Ouni tries to discourage Nibi from participating, but as they’re trying to sort out what to do, Chakuro makes a deadly observation: the time for discussion is over. Skylos has arrived.
My thoughts: A slow episode, but it was needed. Too much back to back action in a series is no good either.
Where did Ouni come from? Is he tied to the nous somehow? Why does he have no family? Why is the guard captain’s wife introduced – will she play some kind of critical role during or after the battle?
There’s not much to say about this episode, except I enjoyed it like all the others and I’m very much looking forward to next week’s episode.