After moulting, Portia emerges to reclaim influence in Great Nest. She immediately ingests a distilled Understanding from a groomed male courier, updating herself on politics, temple decrees, and rivals. As knowledge settles, she orders the male’s disposal to protect secrets, revealing Great Nest’s pragmatic yet ritualized attitude toward male lives and tradition.

Surveying the city’s breadth, Portia notes rising resource friction with neighboring nests and the temple’s monopoly over radio. She reviews the divine workshops attempting the Messenger’s designs—dangerous copper and lightning networks that often self-destruct—yet remain central to the temple’s authority. She worries other cities might realize God’s plans first.

Portia visits Fabian, a uniquely valued male chemical architect who rapidly “writes” ant colony behaviors. He withholds a promised breakthrough and voices alarm about sanctioned male killings, citing his assistant Osric’s post-mating death. Portia reassures him of her protection but misses his broader critique: that systemic permission for such killings persists despite his value.

Returning to duty, Portia is tasked to examine Bianca, a former ally accused of heresy. Bianca, using advanced lenses and spectroscopy, asserts the Messenger is merely a small metal body reflecting sunlight, not a deity. Portia offers clemency if Bianca recants, appealing to tradition and social stability.

Bianca refuses, arguing Temple orthodoxy now hinders their potential and noting similar doubts elsewhere. Portia, privately unsettled yet bound to preserve Temple power and unity, concludes punishment is inevitable. Bianca’s likely exile signals a hardening orthodoxy and foreshadows internal schism and external conflict driven by God’s inscrutable demands.