At dawn on Luna, Ephraim drinks and plans to disappear to Earth with Volga. Haunted by the murdered Red girl and his dead crew, he spirals into zoladone apathy. Volga confronts him about his numbing and their crimes, escalating into a violent scuffle that ends their partnership; she leaves him.

Alone and drifting through the city, Ephraim broods over Cyra, Dano, and Trigg, then heads to a skyhook to board a chartered yacht. Volga never arrives. When the crew inexplicably vanishes, Ephraim searches the ship and finds Holiday and a living Lyria waiting.

Holiday demands the children’s location. Ephraim taunts them but eventually admits the Syndicate job ran through the Duke of Hands and an Obsidian enforcer, Gorgo. He contests Intelligence’s theory that the Queen is Red, claiming underworld rumor points to an Obsidian warlord from Earth. They warn the Lady Julii is independently hunting the kidnappers.

Holiday reveals Volga is in custody and threatens to hand her to the Telemanuses unless Ephraim cooperates. Shaken, Ephraim bargains: pardons for himself and Volga. Virginia appears by holo, refuses to release Volga now, and rejects the compromised Ophion Guild; at Ephraim’s insistence she uses Amani as third-party. She rejects a transponder, so Ephraim proposes placing a call they can trace via GPS.

Virginia agrees to the call-trace plan and threatens Ephraim with lethal retribution if he defects or flees. Ephraim, driven by guilt and concern for Volga, commits to help recover Pax and Electra in exchange for pardons upon success.