Vis wakes beside the underground canal, naked, cleaned, and no longer burning from the toxic water. Netiqret and Kiya pulled Vis out after hearing the chaos above, and Vis immediately says that he damaged the bridge and must hurry. When Netiqret guesses that Vis intends to kill Ka, Vis confirms it, and Netiqret agrees to help while Vis dives back into the canal to recover the crook and flail.

Vis retrieves both weapons, dresses in the spare clothes Netiqret brings, and says he needs a priest to get back into the Sanctum without alerting the Gleaners too soon. As the three head toward the temple, Netiqret asks how Vis knew her name and then explains her past. Priests took Kiya as a child for a surrogate system tied to the Nomarch; later, a controlled iunctus offered Netiqret a way to get Kiya back if Netiqret murdered a priest and disguised the death. Kiya was returned damaged and still linked to the Nomarch, able to gather information but at risk of being "reclaimed" if she interfered, so Netiqret became a mesektet and spent years seeking the hidden people who had made Kiya's return possible.

The conversation turns to killing, and Netiqret tells Vis that repeated violence has numbed her the way old pain stops feeling shocking. When they emerge into the city, Duat is reeling from the bridge's destruction: black dust hangs over the river, bodies drift below, and Gleaners hover over the wreckage while the crowds stare in fear. At the temple, Overseers guard the sealed obsidian doors and tell Netiqret that the temple has been evacuated and closed, leaving Vis unable to force entry without drawing immediate attack.

Seeing no easy way forward, Netiqret asks Vis when a person gives up on saving someone they love. Remembering Cari, Vis answers that people stop only when they can live with the regret, and Netiqret accepts that Kiya cannot truly be restored but can still help prevent more suffering. Netiqret apologizes to Kiya, asks Kiya to connect to the Nomarch, grant Vis access to the temple, and keep the system from noticing him; Kiya estimates that the interference may go unnoticed for about an hour, whispers something to her mother, and then collapses after obeying. Holding Kiya in her arms, Netiqret tells Vis to make the sacrifice matter, and Vis heads for the temple doors.