Vis descends into South Caten Prison while numbly suppressing grief and rage over Aequa’s death. On the upper prison level, Vis finds evidence that Military slaughtered many Sapper prisoners before abandoning the place, leaving the survivors filthy, starving, and close to neglect. When Vis reaches Lanistia’s cell, Lanistia is weak but unbroken, and Vis transfers Will to her so she can move and help with the deeper rescue.

As they leave Lanistia’s cell, Vis explains that Caten is in civil war, that Religion and Governance currently hold the city, and that Redivius plans to attack that night, which will likely mean the death of any remaining prisoners still ceding to Military. Lanistia soon returns Vis’s Will because extra Will makes the mysterious voice in her head return. While resting near the stairs, Vis decides honesty matters more than caution and tells Lanistia the broad truth about Solivagus, the other worlds, the Cataclysms, Veridius’s account of her Iudicium, and the possibility that Caeror may still live in another world. Lanistia thanks Vis for finally giving her something real to hold onto and warns that Ulciscor deserves to hear about Caeror too.

Vis then goes alone into the deep cells and unexpectedly finds Relucia strapped to a Sapper. Knowing that freeing her has likely already started a countdown to discovery, Vis uses the moment to interrogate Relucia about the Anguis, the Iudicium, the naumachia, and the weapon Estevan used. Relucia gives names of conspirators and says Ostius helped Estevan with the weapon, but claims only Estevan knew how it fully worked. When Relucia tries to justify the Anguis’s violence as necessary suffering that will awaken the lower ranks and force change, Vis rejects the argument, blames the war for Aequa’s death, and leaves Relucia on the Sapper to die.

Vis reaches Ulciscor, who is dazed from the Sapper and from losing the elevated pyramid status he had lived with for years. As Vis helps Ulciscor upward, Ulciscor admits shame over forcing Vis into the Labyrinth, and Vis rescues him anyway. Back at the upper level, Vis again cedes Will to Lanistia so she can help. The reunion between Lanistia and Ulciscor is brief and dryly familiar, but when the three reach the guardroom, Lanistia abruptly kills the two Septimii guards who had agreed to let them leave. Vis is too exhausted and emotionally blunted to do more than protest weakly and open the prison door.

Outside, Vis tells Ulciscor and Lanistia that Kadmos is safe at Domus Telimus and that East Caten should offer a path out because Redivius’s assault will draw forces elsewhere. During the long, painful walk back, Lanistia again returns Vis’s Will when the voice resurfaces. At Domus Telimus, Kadmos and Diago welcome the escapees, Kadmos gives out his pain-numbing tea, and Vis leaves almost immediately because he still has another task. Alone in the street with Diago, Vis reflects on the suffering spreading through Caten and on his own role in helping unleash it. Remembering Decimus’s words about the strength of the few, Vis crushes Ostius’s medallion to dust and heads toward the coming war.