Vis bursts into Domus Telimus after a narrow escape from a street chase, wounded by a crossbow graze and furious at himself for walking into an obvious trap. After two weeks of increasingly bold nighttime attacks on people hunting the proscribed, Vis realizes Governance and Religion have adapted by using a mob as cover for an organized search. He hides the metal of his mask, false arm, and weapon fragments, while Diago stays close and Kadmos begins treating the wound.

Kadmos reports that an unnamed middle-aged man is waiting in the house and gives Vis a stylus carrying Vis’s own Will, which identifies the visitor as someone connected to the surviving Iudicium members. Before Vis can deal with that problem, pounding erupts at the front door. Fearing discovery from both the searchers and the mysterious guest, Vis orders Kadmos to hide the visitor and all bloodied evidence inside Ulciscor’s locked office, then quickly changes into a robe and prepares to pretend he has just come from the baths.

At the door, Vis faces Tanrius, a Quintus hunting the masked killer now called Carnifex. Tanrius says the fugitive vanished nearby and may be injured, but Vis smoothly denies seeing anything and invites the soldiers inside so he does not appear evasive. Kadmos supports the deception by arriving with fresh clothes and tea, reinforcing the story that Vis was bathing, even as the house is searched.

When one of the Sextii starts pressing Kadmos, Vis firmly asserts Kadmos’s protected status as a member of his household. Diago’s imposing presence helps end the confrontation, and Vis reflects that his fear of the alupi has faded during the last two weeks. Remembering the Basilica massacre, Vis concludes that Diago’s violence was targeted at the men who had arranged the deaths of Vis’s friends and threatened Vis himself, which is why Vis now trusts him.

Tanrius eventually reaches Ulciscor’s locked office, where the hidden visitor is concealed. Vis deflects suspicion by joking about his father’s expensive tastes and encouraging Tanrius to consider the cost of breaking the ornate door, which persuades Tanrius to move on. Vis also hides blood leaking through his robe by distracting Tanrius with Kadmos’s foul-smelling tea and his missing arm. Once the soldiers leave, Vis collapses in relief, changes clothes, quietly accepts Kadmos’s promise of silence, and heads off to finally meet the unknown guest.