Ulciscor and Lanistia visit Vis’s room, present a gold-plated stylus from his mother, and escort him to a grand Catenanized dinner. Vis is introduced to a stream of senators, including Magnus Quintus Omus, while suppressing his anger at the occupation and playing the dutiful rising student.

Indol summons Vis to Dimidius Quiscil’s table, where Quiscil conducts a sustained, probing interrogation focused on the Anguis weapon seen at the naumachia. Vis manages careful, rehearsed answers once he recognizes Quiscil’s aim—understanding and potentially acquiring or countering the weapon. Fadrique repeatedly appears to whisper updates to Quiscil, heightening Vis’s tension and caution about being recognized.

The dinner’s cultural pageantry and distorted history of Suus grate on Vis, but Emissa intervenes, drawing him away under a pretext. Their private conversation and shared observations provide relief, until Ulciscor interrupts and pointedly warns Vis to be wary of Emissa, recalling her role after the Transvect attack. Vis returns to the senator circuit until the evening winds down.

Exhausted but determined, Vis slips into the palace’s hidden tunnels via his fireplace. He methodically checks routes and listening slots to several likely meeting halls, finding no guards, blocks, or Will-alarms, and marks intersections to avoid getting lost. The system appears intact and usable for eavesdropping on the summit.

Drawn by memory, Vis peeks into the Great Hall where his father once judged cases, confronting a wave of grief before a distant sound urges him to retreat. He cleans any trace of his passage, returns to his room undetected, and falls asleep, steadied by the evening’s small reprieve with Emissa and resolved to use the tunnels to observe the summit.