Before the duel, Cassius recalls his father’s edelweiss and the last day he felt worthy of his family name. He confesses fear that only the Void awaits and urges Lysander not to acquiesce to Dido’s demands, even at the cost of their lives. Lysander argues the Republic’s failure demands restoring order by giving Dido evidence from the safe. The dispute exposes their opposing moral cores and ends their decade of brotherhood.

In the Bleeding Place, amid ritual overseen by a blind Justice and a young White named Chance, Dido seeks to frame the spectacle for political gain. Bellerephon publicly denounces Cassius as a conspirator; Cassius admits guilt for past blood but claims he came alone. The duel begins: Bellerephon’s Shadowfall stance and longer hasta overwhelm Cassius at first, battering his aegis and wounding him.

As Cassius’s shield fails, he springs the Snapping Branch gambit, yanks Bellerephon off balance, shears off both of the man’s arms, and, after Bellerephon accepts death, beheads him. Cassius asks Dido to spare her kin in exchange for releasing him, but Dido refuses, using the bloodfeud to continue pressing her advantage.

Dido sends Fabera next; Cassius impales her with a precise Autumn Wind sequence. Bellagra follows and dies quickly. With each death, the crowd’s restraint erodes, grief and rage spread, and Lysander recognizes Dido’s strategy: absent public evidence, she converts family sacrifice into fury against the Interior and binds allies to her coup.

Dido privately offers to end the killing if Lysander opens the safe; he refuses. Diomedes protests the slaughter but does not act. Cassius, bloodied and exhausted, reaffirms his honor after each victory. To escalate pressure and sustain the spectacle, Dido orders Seraphina to enter the circle and “honor House Raa.”