Lysander finds a brutalized Gold bound in a constricting tacNet on the Vindabona. After cutting her free and administering stims, he urges her to help liberate other prisoners. She instead asks his docking tube, then suddenly incapacitates him and steals his razor, leaving him weaponless while lowColor captives beg to be freed.

Without the razor, Lysander fails to cut the birdcage wires and is forced into combat when Ascomanni Obsidians enter. He kills attackers and retreats through corridors as Pytha guides him away from blocked routes. With raiders pounding at doors, he jams a hatch and races for the docks, pursued by the chanting Obsidian pack.

He collides with the same Gold, now grievously wounded and carrying his bloodied razor. Together they slow the raiders at the hatch, then hobble toward the transfer bridge where Cassius holds the causeway, mowing down an Obsidian. They reach the Archimedes, but enemy railgun fire punches through the hull, causing brief depressurization and engine damage before the ship disengages.

Lysander carries the woman to the infirmary, cauterizes her abdominal wound, and stabilizes her with limited supplies, noting a lacerated liver that needs a surgeon. She murmurs a plea to help at S-1392 before losing consciousness. Her body bears old scars that mark a hardened fighter rather than a courtly youth.

Suspicious of her shifting accent and behavior, Lysander examines her face, peels away resFlesh, and discovers the hidden Peerless scar on her cheek. The revelation confirms she is an elite Gold concealing her identity, even as Lysander remains tormented by the prisoners he failed to save.