Ignoring Netiqret, Vis immediately reaches through Ahmose and takes control of his body to prepare for the attack she has arranged. He moves Ahmose into the shadows, has him extinguish candles, and waits as three white-clad iunctii enter with blades. Because Ahmose still carries one of Vis’s Vitaeria, Vis uses Ahmose to Harmonically imbue one attacker, orders him to surrender his sword and defend them, and then fights the others through Ahmose’s unfamiliar body.

The struggle is clumsy and brutal because Ahmose is physically weaker and Vis is unaccustomed to his proportions, but the attackers are unskilled. Vis kills one by severing his hand and driving the sabre through his mouth, then hacks down the second as it grapples with the enthralled iunctus. He questions the last survivor through Ahmose, confirms that no other attackers are coming and that Ahmose is no longer in immediate danger, then kills him and releases control.

Afterward, Netiqret calmly leads Vis back through Duat and reveals that the attack was a test of his capabilities and temperament. Vis is furious that he was forced to kill the iunctii and that Ahmose was endangered, but he restrains himself because he still needs her help. He demands her word that Ahmose will not be harmed again, and Netiqret grants it while warning Vis not to defy her again. When Vis presses her about the Nomarch, she claims she wants anonymity from Ka rather than destruction, and explains that the Nomarch cannot simply be destroyed because backups exist in other cities and because it operates Duat’s air, water, and food systems.

Vis uses that conversation to gather more strategic information. The Nomarch’s control over Duat’s essential systems suggests to him that it likely controls the Gleaners and other defenses around the pyramid. Netiqret says her safe opportunity to get him inside is about six months away, but Vis insists he needs entry within weeks. She resists, warning that moving faster will be much more dangerous, yet finally admits that an earlier route may be possible and leaves him to speak with Ahmose first.

Back in the house, Vis finds Ahmose still shaken and clutching the bronze sabre among the corpses. Ahmose says he understands that Vis had to act, and after Vis admits that he, specifically, needs Netiqret, Ahmose reluctantly accepts that they both do. Their conversation then turns to death and undeath: Ahmose describes dying as feeling his body stop resisting, then fading into sleep and nothingness until waking again as one of the western dead. He explains that service after death begins with faith and purpose but gradually becomes wearying, trapping, and spiritually corrosive, especially once belief in Aaru begins to fail.

As they speak, Ahmose notes that he has not seen Kiya since the attack and that a child iunctus would be unusual because western children are assumed to pass directly to the Field of Reeds. Netiqret then returns, apologises to Ahmose and says the attackers were not meant to harm him, a startling concession from a living person to one of the western dead. She tells Vis she has found a possible way into the Nomarch only a few months away, but her amused hesitation makes clear that the plan will demand something he will not welcome.