Vis wakes to the sound of waves in the Catenan Academy infirmary, aching and bandaged after the crash and fight. He feigns sleep as two students whisper about the wrecked Transvect, then reveals he is awake and learns their names—Emissa and Indol. They confirm he is at the Academy and press for details, noting that the Transvect arrived “more ash than stone.” Emissa hints at a rumor from their classmate Belli that a conversation between Magnus Telimus and Praeceptor Nequias suggested Vis, not Ulciscor, saved the day. When an auburn-haired girl warns someone is coming, Emissa and Indol slip out, asking Vis to pretend they were never there.

Alone, Vis considers what Ulciscor might remember from the attack and what to conceal. A young physician arrives, confirms Vis and Ulciscor are safe, and warns Vis’s side wound will take one to two weeks to heal. As the physician examines him, Vis explains there was an explosion after leaving Letens and that he and Ulciscor jumped from the Transvect before it crashed, with Ulciscor taking the brunt of the fall.

Pressed further, Vis admits they were attacked and that he was cut by a sword. He adds that Ulciscor was knocked out and that Vis surprised the remaining assailants—only one of whom was armed—downplaying his own role as luck. The physician treats the wound and probes inconsistencies, asking how Ulciscor suffered an arrow wound if only one attacker had a weapon.

Vis answers that the arrow must have come from elsewhere in the forest and claims he never saw the archer, carefully avoiding mention of the Anguis. When the physician asks whether the arrow itself was unusual or when Vis removed it, Vis is saved from further questions by a commotion outside.

A spectacled man, Marcus, peeks in; the physician authorizes Ulciscor’s entrance, remarking that he is now Vis’s father. Ulciscor enters in senatorial dress, composed and seemingly uninjured, his attention fixed on Vis. He greets the physician, and the scene closes with the impending conversation hanging over Vis’s carefully maintained story.