Ekur of the cohort Tkalal returns from isolated transit into Carryx-controlled space, relieved to be back under hierarchy but uneasy at the responsibility of choices made while cut off. A regulator-librarian delivers a direct order from the world-palace: Ekur must escort its prisoners to the keeping pens and oversee interrogation, forcing closer contact with “low animals” and triggering physical and social changes tied to its new role.

Else Yannin’s body—occupied by the swarm, with Ameer Kindred and Else’s remaining consciousness translating emotion—walks the prison corridors with Synnia. Synnia reminisces about meeting and loving Nöl, while the swarm carefully performs human anxiety and avoids revealing Else’s complicated feelings about Dafyd and Tonner. They scout for other Anjiin prisoners and observe other captive species with greater freedom, then pause at a vivid mosaic made by an unknown prisoner, which leaves the swarm both inspired and saddened.

A faint, structured mental signal brushes the swarm’s awareness. Recognizing it as a distress call, the swarm recalls how Carryx interrogation works when captives are initially a “cipher”: vivisection and behavioral conditioning feed data to translation half-minds. Under Ekur’s oversight, Soft Lothark and Sinen interrogators have reduced a group of captives to twenty survivors; when formal questioning begins, one captive insists it was engineered for war, not evolved, and claims its makers are the Aunjeli—plasma-bodied beings who build cities in stellar coronas—before turning openly hostile, prompting Ekur to resume punitive measures.

Back in Else’s body, the swarm waits for a gap in attention, then slips out alone and follows the fading distress signal upward into more heavily Carryx-patrolled levels. To avoid detection, it alters Else’s skin and scent, moves like it belongs, and hides when necessary. Risking the host body’s longevity, it matches frequencies and answers the call, learning the sender is a captured pilot that replays the Ayayeh battle, the Carryx losses, the pilot cohort’s capture, and the line of questioning used by Carryx interrogators.

The connection stutters, and the swarm cuts off communication and retreats before it can be traced, heeding Ameer and Else’s warnings that linking “two weird things” would draw scrutiny. As it descends, the swarm obsessively replays the new intelligence—especially images of Carryx casualties—feeling newly entangled in the wider war. Ekur then questions its white-eyed Sinen factor about the brief signal; hearing it was strong enough to pierce local dampers but not reach outside, Ekur concludes it is not harmless noise and decides the captives will be questioned about it.