From a hidden crater on Valetudo, Lysander and ten Praetorians approach the Lightbringer in a battered Rim shuttle, their wounds and uniforms staged by Atlas to sell them as survivors of Kalyke. Surveying the partially repaired flagship and the gathered Reformer houses, Lysander masks his renewed distrust of Rhone—the man who poisoned him—as Rhone urges secrecy and ruthless command.

In the Lightbringer’s hangar, thirty-three thousand Praetorians greet Lysander. Conscious that Atlas has seeded Gorgons aboard, he worries over loyalty even as Cicero embraces him and mourns Dido, Helios, and Diomedes. With Mars and Luna under siege and Bellona’s Pallas pressing to withdraw to Mars, Lysander rejects retreat. He bares his staged wounds to inflame Praetorian pride, wins the New Shepherds with appeals to virtue, and coaxes the Reformers to stand. Pallas remains wary, but Cicero yields the command sceptre and the fleet follows Lysander.

Broadcasting across the armada, Lysander claims Fá has sacked Io, razed Callisto with atomics, enslaved millions, and seized Demeter’s Garter. He frames a decisive plan: reclaim the Garter immediately to end the famine threat, then hunt Fá. The rhetoric fuses fear and purpose, binding disparate allies behind his chosen course.

After briefing his officers, Lysander withdraws to his stateroom, steadied by the return of his valet Exeter and haunted by a mural of the Conquering that now feels shadowed by Atlas. When Pytha arrives, she offers to share his burden. To preserve their sibling-like bond, he lies—spinning an ambush and forced evacuation at Kalyke—and deflects from the truth. Overwhelmed by the coldness of it all, he breaks down, and Pytha comforts him as his isolation deepens.