Lysander makes a dramatic entrance to his celebration atop the newly rebuilt Lightbringer and addresses assembled Golds, defying Core orthodoxy by proving the Votum can build a moonBreaker. Pytha lifts the vast ship successfully, winning him applause and new political capital. Lysander credits Horatia, Glirastes, and Votum workers, then circulates to secure support.

Glirastes introduces Pallas au Grecca, envoy for Lady Bellona, who withholds backing until Lysander proves his resolve. Mid-party, Rhone reports a nuclear explosion at the Venus dockyards and a Carthii invasion. Realizing the risk of exposure, Lysander orders calm, moves Tharsus away via Cicero, and confronts Valeria au Carthii. He reveals he smuggled eighty thousand Martian veterans to Apollonius and offers Valeria a path to head House Carthii if she cooperates; she agrees.

As Tharsus and his revelers attempt escape, Atlas and his Gorgons descend under the Dictator’s writ. After springing a cloudborne trap, they drive Tharsus back to the party. With no one willing to shield him, Atlas uses the Iron Fist to immobilize Tharsus, mutilates him, and feeds him to the manticore, asserting Atalantia’s authority.

Atlas publicly announces an inquest into a broken truce and formally summons Lysander to New Sparta for the Earth summit in a week. Glirastes urges defiance, but Horatia warns refusing the writ would hand Atalantia grounds to destroy him. Lysander opts to comply, instructing Horatia and Rhone to execute Contingency Eleven and keep the Apollonius effort alive, leveraging Valeria’s assent.

Lysander bids urgent farewells, orders Glirastes to a safe-house, and is delivered to Atlas’s custody. Aboard the shuttle, Atlas notes Atalantia intends to reshape Lysander’s image and orders his Gorgons to brutalize him, as the plan to salvage allies from Venus proceeds without him.