Luzia sleeps in Valentina’s room while Víctor’s doctor sets Santángel’s broken fingers. Víctor’s men scrape up what is left of Álvaro and search Don Marius’s study for more remains, then the servants clean and disguise the bloody aftermath under strict orders of “servicio y silencio.”

That evening, Víctor, Don Marius, Valentina, the widow Catalina, and Santángel meet in the salon to assess the disaster. Víctor worries that if Luzia loses control like this at Pérez’s Torneo Secreto, they will be ruined. Santángel insists Luzia healed herself and can continue after rest; when pressed about what went wrong, Santángel lies that Santángel’s own harshness and Luzia’s fear may have tainted the miracle, shielding the deeper truth while agreeing to find a way to control her.

Luzia wakes at twilight, still sore and dizzy, and finds her tongue outwardly healed despite lingering pain. Returning to her own room, she sees the violence has been scrubbed away. Fearful and confused about whether she killed Álvaro, Luzia examines her mouth, then notices Santángel’s satchel and, tempted by the chance, rummages through it.

Inside, Luzia finds letters—some marked with Santángel’s scorpion seal—and a Latin letter mentioning Pérez. Skimming, Luzia gathers that the correspondence concerns astrology: Pérez’s birth sign, the king’s stars, and that John Dee once read Prince Philip’s chart. The details deepen Luzia’s dread that something demonic or unseen moved through her during the killing.

Hualit arrives with rue and rosemary for protection and questions Luzia about what happened, warning her not to speak of Víctor too openly. Hualit admits the humiliations she endured to secure Víctor’s favor and insists Luzia must appear biddable to Víctor and Pérez. She suggests the incident might be an esticho—witchcraft from a rival—and promises to write to Mari about spirits and to Rabbi Gento Isserlis, then reveals to Luzia that Hualit and Ana are secretly Jewish forced converts. Hualit lays out a plan: win the torneo, take the rewards, and escape with Ana to Salonika to live openly among other anusim—so long as Luzia learns what went wrong and keeps control.