Lysander oversees the sack of the Garter, House Raa’s agricultural trove, as mechs uproot centuries-bred trees and Praetorians drag off growers. With Pallas and archGrower Lucilla, he tallies the haul and plots to adapt Rim cultivars for Mercury, promising profits and political leverage. Pallas praises the operation, hints she knows of his Praetorian purge, and counsels him to manage Cicero and shield Julia Bellona from Cassius’s body.

At the burn line, Cicero watches growers refuse sanctuary and face the fire with their named trees. Troubled, he challenges the morality of the destruction. Lysander reframes it as necessary total-war strategy—targeting the enemy’s “stomach” to force submission and secure lasting peace. Cicero yields to departure, though he looks back as the growers burn.

In the hangar, Lysander honors dead Cassius by placing the Ares helm on his body and freeing Pytha. Grieving and defiant, Pytha vows to kill him if they meet again; he refuses to execute her and lets her escape aboard the Archimedes with Cassius’s corpse, planning to exploit what she knows. He then elevates Kyber to Dux, orders an end to kill-pool cabals, and charges her to cleanse the Praetorians.

Recon reports a second, Rim-style fleet arriving under the Pandora. Weighing risk and already rich with spoils for his clients, Lysander chooses not to engage. Pallas and Cicero agree, and he orders a return to the Core at full torch, leaving Io’s green band consumed by fire.

Alone, Lysander reflects on Cassius and opens Atlas’s bag of fourteen golden cubes, relics tied to the Orpheus/Eidmi secret. He selects Red- and Gold-marked cubes and ponders which Silenius would use first, foreshadowing his next decisive move.