Vis leaves the Academy infirmary to attend Callidus's funeral at the Necropolis, arriving late and keeping to the back with Eidhin because he wants to mourn rather than answer questions about the Iudicium. The ceremony deepens his grief, but it also shows him the scale of Callidus's loss: Magnus Tertius Ericius, his wife, daughters, and many patricians and students attend, and Vis is struck by the father's genuine sorrow. That sincerity matters to Vis because he has chosen Governance under Ericius and needs Callidus's family to have valued him.

After the rites, Veridius approaches Vis privately. Vis rejects his careful sympathy, but Veridius insists that Vis will be in danger as soon as he reaches Caten, claims he is trying to stop what is coming, and offers to arrange transport to Solivagus whenever Vis is ready to hear the answers he has promised. Veridius also says Vis's friends wanted to see him, but he held them back because Vis is not ready; Vis agrees and asks that they be told he will find them in Caten, where tensions between pyramids are worsening.

When Veridius leaves, Eidhin reveals a further reason to distrust him: before the Iudicium, Veridius offered to free Eidhin from the agreement binding his father and people, with official sanction, if Eidhin won on his own. Eidhin refused because he feared that accepting such a bargain would let the Hierarchy change him by degrees, but Callidus died anyway, leaving him wracked with guilt. Vis answers by embracing Eidhin and telling him never to let them change him, affirming both Eidhin's honour and Callidus's respect for him.

A messenger then summons Vis to a private meeting with Magnus Tertius Ericius. Ericius immediately challenges Vis's decision to join Governance, pointing out that Military would have rewarded the Academy's Domitor far more and suspecting that Vis has another motive. Vis admits that he joined because he wants to learn who was truly responsible for Callidus's death and make them pay, implying that the Anguis alone do not explain the Iudicium. He then tells Ericius that Callidus had been blackmailed into remaining in Class Seven after Belli Volenis threatened to expose census documents on recent Iudicium deaths; Callidus recovered the papers but too late to restore his standing, and he had wanted his father to know the truth.

Ericius accepts Vis's explanation, promises tentative support, and reveals the price of entering Governance in Vis's current condition. Because of political suspicion and doubts about how losing an arm will affect his ability to wield Will, Governance plans to honor Vis publicly but force him through Placement like an ordinary graduate and begin him as a Sextus rather than the Quintus rank his Domitor title should have earned. Ericius hints that Vis can still claim the higher post if he continues to outperform his peers, then reminds him that Placement requires first going through the Aurora Columnae ceremony and surrendering his Will to the Hierarchy. Left alone among the tombs, Vis thinks briefly about fleeing before that final commitment, but he decides that the choice is no longer real and follows Ericius back into the darkness.