Vis waits in anxiety for judgment, recalling harsher but simpler punishments from the orphanage. Praeceptor Taedia, Class Five’s teacher, interviews him and warns that by striking a Sixth as a Seventh he risks expulsion; her advice is to swallow his pride.

Principalis Veridius convenes with Praeceptor Nequias and Class Three student Iro Decimus, who asserts Vis was solely at fault. Vis presents his account, and Veridius brings in Eidhin, bruised and angry. Vis delivers a deliberate, deferential apology and forces a handshake, completing the form of a Threefold Apology that Eidhin unwittingly accepts, thereby forfeiting any right to pursue expulsion. Veridius upholds the form and sets penance instead: Vis will muck out the stables every evening during dinner until the Festival of the Ancestors, with Septimus Ascenia to instruct him. Veridius cautions that this reprieve is a second chance, not to be repeated.

After Nequias drags Eidhin and a seething Iro away, Taedia remarks that witnesses initially supported Vis before Iro influenced them, and notes Eidhin’s surname, Breac, is not Catenan. She counsels Vis to avoid Iro, then secures him a meal in the kitchen, observing that Eidhin is unpopular and that some Praeceptors treat the Academy as a Military post.

Returning to the dorm, Vis approaches Callidus, who is bruised and scraped. Callidus says Eidhin is not responsible; because the public intimidation failed, a “second messenger” delivered the lesson later. He accuses Vis of trying to make an impression and implies the intervention worsened the fallout, rebuffing Vis’s apology.

When Drusus Corani and other Sevenths loudly deride Callidus—claiming he bought entry to Class Three and that his powerful family has cast him off—Vis rejects the pile-on, pointing out they are all Sevenths and refusing to join in. Challenged, Vis ends the confrontation by stating, “Because I killed him,” about Melior, which disperses the would-be bullies. As lights go out by Will, Vis settles into uneasy sleep, aware he has both averted immediate expulsion and further isolated himself socially.