Morning at La Casilla is unnervingly quiet after the scorpion attack. Luzia and Concha have searched the room for more threats and Concha has slept beside Luzia’s bed; now Luzia sits idle for the first time in her life, reflecting on years of labor, hidden learning, and the mingling of her practical self with her once-private dreams.

Luzia considers what winning the torneo would truly mean: service to the king, political peril, and endless rivalry rather than safety. Handling her costly rosary, she recognizes the hollow piety of her new persona and her own shifting desires, including the dangerous thrill of being seen and wanted.

Elsewhere in the house, Don Marius brings Valentina her first taste of chocolate, and their brief intimacy surprises him with the possibility that he might make her happy. Quiteria Escárcega, bored with her lover Luis Lopez Venegas and blocked as a writer, turns his family recipes into material for a new satirical play about servants and their employers. Far north, the king wakes in pain from gout, writes about recovering holy relics, and decides to wait for the vicar’s report before judging Antonio Pérez and the wonders at the torneo.

Concha tells Luzia that Santángel wishes to speak with her; Hualit instead escorts Luzia away for a private warning. Hualit says Pérez’s position is growing precarious and urges Luzia to trust no one, implying Santángel may be manipulating events; she reveals that one of Gracia de Valera’s guards has been found dead, apparently choked by his own swollen tongue.

Santángel confronts Hualit and suggests, with deliberate menace, that a scorpion may have been forced into the guard’s mouth, turning the death into a warning against attacking Luzia. Alone with Luzia, Santángel admits the guard “forfeited his life” by trying to kill her, tells Luzia the competitors will have portraits sketched, and instructs her to study the others’ strengths before the next trial, scheduled for tomorrow night and expected to test faith under the Vicar of Madrid.

When Luzia voices fear of the vicar and growing assassination attempts, Santángel explains the wider stakes: Pérez is implicated in the murder of Escobedo and has overreached with the king, while signaling his leverage through his revised motto, “usque adhuc” (“until now”). Santángel urges Luzia to play the game carefully and avoid becoming the one who is consumed.