On the morning of the auto de fe, Marius Ordodo stays in bed, avoiding the day and the household that now feels emptier without Valentina. Wandering in his nightclothes, he hears harp music from a nearby house and, listening unseen from the Ordodo nursery window, begins to weep.

Across the street, a woman plays the harp without knowing who hears her or why she has chosen such a sad piece, unaware of the scullion who once longed for music and will never hear her again. In the Ordodo kitchen, gueda kills time with cards, prays for Luzias soul, and comforts herself that the household has escaped punishment; she orders her brooding son to eat and silently thanks God that Quiteria Escrcega has gone to Toledo.

In Toledo, King Philip arrives with gout and anger over Prezs escape, determined that the auto de fe will restore order and warn the public that no one can flee God. He surveys the grand scaffolding and hierarchy of the staging, already imagining Prezs estate seized and his symbols destroyed once the traitor is caught.

Quiteria and Valentina, now together as lovers, have spent days trying to help Luzia by collecting money, sending provisions, and seeking advice, while Valentina keeps herself busy with chores to quiet her guilt. They go to the Plaza de Zocodover for the ceremony, where the crowds pray, eat, and jostle for seats as the day unfolds in ritual stages: parade, mass, sermon, charges, and punishments.

From the amphitheater, Valentina sees only three prisoners marked for death and recognizes Santngel by his height and Luzia by her smallness, enduring jeers and spit. As sentences drag on through the afternoonincluding mock trials of the absent dead and escapedValentina reflects on the Inquisitions endless hunger for sin, her own fear of returning to a lonely marriage, and the shared loneliness of the overlooked. She resolves not to look away when the midnight pyres are lit, grieving that when the fires burn, Luzia will be gone and the world lonelier.