Vis, living under the name Siamun, continues preparing for Netiqret’s plan to enter Ka’s temple during the Return. Because his ability requires touch and works on only a few iunctii at once, Netiqret decides he cannot simply control his way past the guards. She has already abandoned the idea of teaching him the lyre, so Ahmose now tries to teach Vis a temple dance instead, but Vis performs stiffly and badly enough that both Ahmose and Netiqret openly despair. Even so, Netiqret insists he only needs to look competent long enough to be admitted with the performers, and Ahmose jokingly suggests even more humiliating alternatives before they pause for rest.

While alone downstairs, Vis is approached unexpectedly by Kiya, who has never spoken to him before. Kiya warns him not to drink more water than necessary because “the old ones” must filter it, then abruptly tells him that he lied to Netiqret about coming from an outside community. In the same detached way, Kiya identifies Vis’s companion as an iunctus created by an Amemet integration error and explains that a mandatum is an Amemet blade that overrides iunctii consciousness. Most importantly, Kiya gives Vis precise information: there are eighty-two external Amemet searching for threats, eighteen assigned to guard Ka, and the guards near Ka are stored dormant along the tunnel between the temple and the pyramid until an intruder activates them. When Vis presses for more, Kiya shuts down and leaves.

Netiqret soon returns with Kiya and reacts sharply when she learns Kiya spoke with Vis. She refuses to explain Kiya beyond calling her an iunctus and orders Vis not to speak to her again, even if Kiya initiates the conversation. When Vis asks about an earlier remark that the low, narrow tunnels were not built for “the likes of us,” Netiqret confirms they were made for children and says some iunctii remember that fact. She then leaves again, making clear that whatever Kiya is and whatever she knows remain dangerous subjects.

Back upstairs, Ahmose makes Vis practice in the revealing clothing temple dancers wear, then grows increasingly frustrated with Vis’s inability to move with the necessary ease. The training turns serious when Ahmose admits that, although Vis saved him, telling him the truth about Ka and the afterlife also destroyed the beliefs that once comforted him. Ahmose says that he now fears death instead of accepting it, which explains his constant anxiety about Vis’s dangerous plans. Vis apologizes and promises to protect him, but also says he does not want merely to survive. Netiqret briefly checks on the practice, dryly notes that Vis’s scars at least will not need explanation, and the chapter ends with Vis forcing himself back into the dance training.