Dafyd slowly recovers strength in the crowded, orange-lit prison hold where time and cold have become routine. While a small choir sings among the captives, the shipwide voice announces a return to symmetrical space. The transition repeats the familiar, unnerving time inversion, and the prisoners brace together as the hold shudders through a long maneuver.

The doors open to white light and a biting, fresh wind. The captives are marched onto an enormous metallic plain in a vast world-city of towering ebony ziggurats, silver arches reaching toward space, and a sky dotted with the same distant black points as the invading fleet. Six Carryx preside over the platform, including a massive bone-white one flanked by two red-armored enforcers, while Soft Lothark handlers herd humans into position.

Dafyd witnesses a woman resist by shouting and shaking her fist; a red-armored Carryx kills her instantly, turning her into a spray of tissue and mist, and the rest comply. A Soft Lothark calls Dafyd and Else by name and brings them forward. Dafyd drops prone before the bone-white Carryx, is briefly assessed through Carryx whistles and trills, then is sent to wait for transport. Dafyd and Else, staring at the alien infrastructure, admit they never had a chance militarily; Else insists there is always hope, even if it is not the hope they wanted.

In a new location, Jessyn finds they have been placed in a strange approximation of human living quarters with private rooms, clothes, and a working shower. Overwhelmed by privacy and quiet, Jessyn forces herself to wash, discovers grooming tools, and retrieves her medication. Counting pills, she estimates they have been captive about six weeks and hides the bottle under her mattress, trying to focus on what little control she still has.

Drawn to voices in the common area, Jessyn reunites with Irinna, and then sees Tonner Freis alive with Else, with Dafyd present and stunned. Tonner and Else discuss how the Carryx seem to have selected experts and already know their names and language; Else insists on keeping her own room, and their reunion turns tense. The group is interrupted when Rickar Daumatin is brought in with a smaller, unarmored Carryx who introduces itself as Tkson, keeper-librarian of their moiety, offering “sympathy” for Nöl and stating the rule of their captivity: usefulness is survival.