Dafyd Alkhor goes to the human moiety librarian, trying to stay “curious” rather than frightened as he navigates the immense Carryx ziggurat. He overhears the librarian speaking with another Carryx and waits until the harsher visitor leaves. Dafyd asks permission to come and learn about the Carryx so the humans can better understand what the Carryx want and make themselves “useful.”

The librarian reacts with sudden, threatening body language, forcing Dafyd to prostrate himself. The librarian rejects Dafyd’s premise, insisting usefulness is inherent, not something chosen or improved: “An animal does not choose its essential nature and place in society.” Shaken, Dafyd retreats and obsessively replays the exchange, noting the translator’s brief stumble and suspecting the phrasing hides a concept that doesn’t map cleanly into human language.

On the walk back, Dafyd notices the corridors are unusually crowded with Carryx soldiers. He spots a guard bearing pale arm-bands like a librarian he remembers, and realizes he hasn’t seen the “hallway crows” lately—despite them having been common earlier—suggesting something has changed in the prison’s population or management.

Back in the workgroup quarters, Campar and Jessyn report they found the Night Drinkers’ lab and possibly a nest, and the group resumes its disrupted research. Tonner explains they lost progress in the attack but expect to regain it quickly, and they focus on getting Jessyn’s medication expressed by their host organisms. As they work into the night, Dafyd shares his failed librarian approach, the banded Carryx soldier, and the missing hallway crows; the group’s dynamics subtly shift after Irinna’s death, with Tonner less controlling, Campar more caretaking, and Rickar more quietly included.

Late, Else comes to Dafyd’s room and asks to stay with him, arguing that safety and time are scarce and she needs what sustains her now. Dafyd agrees, and the perspective shifts to the hidden swarm intelligence inside Else, which experiences internal conflict and shame through Else’s feelings and the “dead girl” echo. While Else and Dafyd have sex, the swarm questions Dafyd about the increased soldiers and confirms—through its own sensory traces—that the Carryx hive is mobilizing; it concludes war preparations are underway, and it urgently needs a way to pass on what it has learned and escape before the fragile calm collapses.