Vis, still confined under Governance protection after the attack at the Aurora Columnae, enters East Caten Prison with Relucia to visit Lanistia Scipio. The prison’s atmosphere reminds him of his earlier imprisonment in Letens, and the guards recognize him despite initial suspicion. Vis notes how politically dangerous the visit is: Lanistia’s public attack has intensified factional tension in Caten, even though Vis continues to insist he does not believe politics motivated her.

As they descend, Relucia drops her patrician act and uses the private walk to deliver an Anguis message. She tells Vis that another Anguis contact, a tall thin man with a scar from forehead to chin, will approach him soon and that Vis must do what he asks. Vis immediately realizes she means the strange man he met before, and he stalls for information.

To probe Relucia and sow doubt, Vis claims the scarred man spoke to him during the Iudicium and describes him as contemptuous of the Anguis. Vis also says the man revealed the Anguis plan behind the earlier attack on the Academy: leaving one of their own to be caught so suspicion would fall on the Hierarchy and inflame Senate divisions. Relucia does not deny the man’s involvement; instead, she absorbs the warning and firmly repeats that he works with the Anguis and that Vis is to obey him.

Vis and Relucia continue through the prison’s lower corridors, passing the stench and silence of the cells until they reach Lanistia. Vis is tense because he fears the woman who attacked him may no longer be herself, but Lanistia answers calmly and coherently from the darkness. When she steps into the lantern light, Vis sees her blind, scarred eye sockets exposed without her usual glasses, and Lanistia dryly asks whether he came for an apology.

Relucia briefly resumes her false social manner and questions Lanistia about the attack, but Lanistia cuts her off. Aware that Military authorities have probably already been alerted to Vis’s visit, Lanistia asks to speak with Vis alone because what she has to say is meant only for him. After a brief objection, Relucia yields and leaves, ending the chapter with Vis finally alone with Lanistia.