Vis enters Ka’s Sanctum disguised among dancers and is struck by its scale, its Aurora Columnae, and the sight of Ka’s pyramid. Before meeting Netiqret, Vis uses the time to scout the direct approach to the pyramid. He finds the Infernis acting as a moat and a dark enclosed bridge lined with dormant Gleaners, and, remembering Kiya’s warning that entering would wake them, concludes he cannot reach the pyramid that way.

Vis returns to the appointed area and meets Netiqret, who has unexpectedly brought Kiya. Netiqret leads both of them down into the Nomarch, a vast hidden hall packed with motionless iunctii on obsidian slabs. At its center, in the ib, Vis discovers a smaller group lying on gold-lit slabs, all of them children. Netiqret explains that children are used because their minds are more adaptable, then directs Vis to connect to a small boy so he can use his ability on the Nomarch.

When Vis touches the boy, he does not find ordinary emotions but a chaotic torrent of information. Instead of immediately doing what Netiqret wants, Vis questions the child iunctus about the Gleaners guarding the pyramid. The boy reveals that avoiding or killing them is impractical, that they are activated against existential threats, and that they would leave Ka’s tunnel only for a major city emergency; Ka himself sleeps and would not notice a direct threat. Netiqret, increasingly desperate, forces Vis at knifepoint to alter the Nomarch’s records so she and Vis register as chief priests, Kiya as a living child, and Ahmose al Maq as a Westerner with eastern access.

Netiqret then reveals her real purpose: she wants Kiya restored to the mind she had before being made part of the Nomarch. Vis tries multiple commands, but the child iunctus insists that this cannot be done. As Netiqret refuses to accept the answer, other child iunctii awaken, the gold light turns red, and they begin repeating “Breach.” Realizing the alarm cannot be stopped and that staying means capture, Vis lies that they can try again later and runs, leaving Netiqret and Kiya behind.

Back in the upper Sanctum, the festivities are still going, but Vis finds the Gleaners unchanged and then spots an Overseer sprinting straight toward him, confirming that the Nomarch has identified him. He flees through unfamiliar corridors, dives from a window to the narrow bank beside the Infernis, and is trapped there by the pursuing Overseer. To survive without revealing his full power, Vis steps into the acid river, relying on hidden Vitaeria to keep it from instantly destroying his legs, then fights the Overseer in the poison and forces it under until it dissolves and dies. Badly burned, exposed, and unable to complete his mission, Vis staggers back into Duat to seek refuge.