Dafyd spends a sleepless night dreading the task Else and the Swarm spy pushed him toward, while the others excitedly rehash Tonner’s ideas about making the Carryx “berries” a viable food source. Else stays near him for much of the night, then disappears before morning. Dafyd goes to the Carryx librarian’s office nauseated with fear, rehearsing that he is “saving lives” even as he worries the plan could collapse and expose him.

In the office, Dafyd reports the human conspiracy to build biological weapons and strike the Carryx. The librarian’s posture shifts into alert attention and it asks who sent the message; Dafyd names Jellit and explains their connection through Jessyn. After a long pause, the librarian calls a Rak-hund and sends it away, then states that Jellit will be brought in and made to understand, implying Jellit’s safety does not matter.

The librarian then turns eagerly to Dafyd’s other assignment, asking whether Tonner’s progress with the berries and the other captive animal is going well and whether the approach could generalize to other organisms. Dafyd gives cautious, research-style answers, but the librarian’s cryptic response—calling it “tragic” to come close and not see “the end”—unsettles him. A Rak-hund returns with Jellit, who looks physically and mentally wrong: gray-skinned, bloodshot, stiff, unsteady, and disturbingly blank, as if drugged or damaged.

Questioned, Jellit first struggles, then confirms he did send Dafyd and proceeds to confess in full. Jellit identifies Urrys Ostencour as a local leader, names Ferre Luminan as another top figure, describes weapons and two twenty-person strike teams, and provides further names and leads whenever his own knowledge ends. The librarian pronounces that Jellit would have failed without Dafyd’s intervention and that “all serve” whether in life or death, then orders both men to remain in the office while a Rak-hund blocks the exit; outside, ominous sounds suggest enforcement has begun.

Left together under guard, Jellit breaks down, calling the situation “so unethical,” while Dafyd apologizes and braces for consequences. Jellit unexpectedly comforts Dafyd, insists Dafyd did the right thing, and hints that Else gave him “a deeper understanding” while warning Dafyd not to idealize her. Both admit the sickening feeling of collaborating with the Carryx, and Jellit predicts he is about to lose many people he cares about as they wait a long time, listening to distant violence and not knowing what comes next.