After Relucia leaves, Vis speaks privately with Lanistia in her cell. Lanistia confirms that she was not acting of her own will when she attacked him: she remembers everything, but says that when Vis touched the Aurora Columnae at the Forum, a booming voice took control and forced her to speak and try to kill him. Because Lanistia lost control only at that moment, both of them conclude that the attack is likely connected to the unexplained damage done to Lanistia at the Academy and to whatever happened to her eyes.

Lanistia then reveals a fragment of memory that gives Vis a new lead. She thinks she once stood in the same corpse-filled room Vis described from the ruins, and she remembers speaking the Vetusian phrase Miseram pacem vel bello bene mutari. Vis offers to investigate, possibly through Veridius and Solivagus, but Lanistia firmly forbids any reckless return there and insists that he limit himself to research in Caten’s libraries and among scholars. She also warns Vis to be careful with Veridius and to tell Ulciscor what he is doing if possible.

The conversation turns personal. Lanistia explains that Ulciscor’s obsession with Caeror’s death has warped his judgment, and that his treatment of Vis as a tool came from years of being dismissed and broken by Caten rather than from indifference. She also asks Vis to think ahead to what he might do with Will once he becomes a Quintus, suggesting Ulciscor may help him adapt his powers around the loss of his arm. As Vis prepares to leave, Lanistia tells him Military will eventually place her in a Sapper and insists he must not act rashly to prevent it, even though Vis clearly does not accept that outcome.

Vis finds Relucia farther down the prison corridor, staring into another prisoner’s green-lit cell and visibly crying. Relucia confirms that Lanistia will likely be put into a Sapper and presses Vis to do more than merely try to stop it, framing the matter as a moral duty. On the way out, Vis tells Relucia that Lanistia described hearing a voice; Relucia says she has never heard of such a thing, though Vis notices possible hesitation. Relucia then shifts to practical danger, warning that although most of the Anguis have been told to leave Vis alone for now, rogue members still want revenge, and escaped naumachiarii now follow Vulferam in loyalty to Melior’s memory.

Outside, Relucia resumes her affectionate disguise as Vis’s adoptive mother before leaving him alone in the city. Vis reflects that he still needs the Anguis’s trust and that his fame and missing arm now make him highly visible in Caten. As he stands outside the prison, already unsettled by everything Lanistia and Relucia have told him, a figure rises from the shadows and reveals herself: Emissa has come to meet him at last.