The chapter opens with a precise account of the plague ravaging Great Nest: a long incubation with mild symptoms, escalating to muscle spasms, paranoia, fugue, and finally an irresistible compulsion to climb before death. Late-stage victims are killed at range, while numerous mid-stage sufferers linger without consensus on their fate.

Portia leads the Temple’s response. Using spiderlings recovered from a plague-ravaged city, she tests for immunity and attempts haemolymph transfusions into mid-stage victims, but nothing works. Fabian distributes new solutions to infected peer houses and reports, while Portia grows exhausted and fearful of eventual collapse into barbarism.

Bianca, a former Temple sister exiled for experimenting with the Messenger’s crystal, visits. She unveils a device of metals and chemicals that generates a force and, she claims, can pluck an invisible universal web—the same medium through which the Messenger’s broadcast is received—allowing a reply. She demands Temple access to hear any response; Portia refuses, citing doctrine and social stability.

Pressed by worsening news and Bianca’s provocation, Portia reflects on how future generations might inherit only fragments of usable Understandings. A sudden insight strikes her, igniting a new scientific direction. She summons Fabian back, invites Bianca to assist in her laboratory, and promises to advocate for Bianca later—accepting that survival must come from their own efforts, not divine intervention.