In the aftermath of Romulus’s death walk, Lysander and Seraphina find Dido slumped in grief, staring out over the sulfur plain. Lysander offers condolences, but Dido rebuffs him and questions his worth. She derides his lack of scars and calls him a king without a kingdom, while Seraphina coldly scowls.

Pressed to define himself, Lysander reflects on years of uncertainty after Octavia’s fall and on those he left behind on the Vindabona who need protection. Drawing on the legacies of his father, Aja, his grandmother, Cassius, and his mother, he embraces Romulus’s final charge to seek unity and declares, “I am an Iron Gold.”

Lysander asks to join Dido’s war, not as a frontline soldier but as an emissary. He urges that chaos must be mastered by Gold’s order and proposes a concrete plan: send him to the Core with a cohort to find his godfather, warn that the Rim is coming, and pursue an alliance against the Reaper to unite Gold.

After a tense silence, Dido studies him. His commitment to unity and his strategic offer pierce her grief; a smile spreads across her face, tacitly endorsing his mission and setting Lysander on a path toward the Core.