Dafyd watches the alien traffic in the cathedral and realizes that learning the Carryx ecosystem’s “names and histories” hasn’t brought wonder, only dread. He sees the prison as a farmed system: species are kept alive only if they stay useful, while humanity’s secret revenge plan sits inside it like an undetected cancer—dangerous, but also seemingly inevitable.

Restless and exhausted, Dafyd wanders toward the new lab alcove. Jessyn stands guard, hardened and sharper than she was on Anjiin. She reports Tonner and Campar arguing over priorities—Tonner wants to begin feeding experiments to the “not-turtle,” while Campar wants to keep analyzing the berries’ internal matrix—and her thin smile suggests she doubts any of it will matter if the coming human rebellion ends in slaughter.

Dafyd returns to the quarters and finds Else alone. When Dafyd challenges Else’s continued “exploring,” Else becomes agitated and insists that fighting back only makes sense if it can lead to victory, not a doomed gesture. Dafyd admits he can’t see any way to win, and Else asks Dafyd to promise to hear her out before judging her.

Else reveals that the Carryx are fighting a vast war, and that an opposing force anticipated the invasion of Anjiin. Six months before the attack, that enemy smuggled in a weapon: a swarm of tiny machines able to inhabit a living host, gather intelligence, and eventually transmit it back. Else admits she knew the Carryx were coming but didn’t warn anyone, arguing it would only have exposed the spy without changing the outcome.

Else shows Dafyd the dark motes beneath her skin and confirms the “Swarm” is inside her and is conscious, though she insists she is still Else. Else’s goal is survival long enough for the Carryx to transfer humans to a less secure conquered system, where the Swarm can finally send their collected information outward. Else says Ostencour’s insurrection will get everyone killed before that can happen, and while Else could kill many Carryx, she refuses because dying early would waste the intelligence mission.

Else proposes that Dafyd stop the insurgents by warning the Carryx librarian, framing it as a selective cull: prove some humans can be domesticated by sacrificing the rebels. Dafyd recoils at betraying people like Jessyn and demands to know whether Else’s earlier intimacy was real or manipulation; Else does not answer. Dafyd asks for time to think, and Else urges secrecy about the Swarm and insists Dafyd cannot wait long.