Vis reflects on his mother’s warning about anger as he endures the crowd’s boos on the Theatre stage. Ellanher publicly announces that Vis cheated by buying a Septimus’s Will, delivers a Threefold Apology, promises to honor winners and refund losers, and declares Vis banished. Vis suppresses his fury and complies, recognizing Ellanher’s cover story as necessary to avert Hierarchy scrutiny that he cannot risk.

In the quiet aftermath, Ellanher suggests Vis return to the safer Victorum league and offers him a place to wait out the crowd. Vis insists he was not trying to kill the Sextus, but Ellanher notes the ferocity she saw in his face during the beating, a warning about his anger’s edge.

Gaufrid arrives, tired but not hostile, and presses four silver triangles into Vis’s palm, refunding the wager because the house is repaying losses after the “cheating” announcement. He notes the fight lasted two minutes and thirty-seven seconds and quietly insists Vis did not cheat, his approval buoying Vis’s spirits.

Leaving before dawn, Vis detours to Letens’s Bibliotheca and steals a travelogue packed with maps and notes on uninhabited islands three weeks east—an undesirable but viable escape route if needed. He hides the book beneath bandages and returns to the orphanage as the sky lightens.

Matron Atrox confronts Vis, extracts his pay, and threatens him with “other ways” to earn if he resists. She orders his help preparing the children for a noon adopter, recommended by Proconsul Manius and ranked Quintus, making the visit politically significant and risky for Vis’s standing. Vis promises to stay out of sight, then retreats to his tiny room, stashes his remaining coins and the travelogue behind a concealed panel, and clumsily rebandages his shoulder, planning to mask the injury’s origin before trying to sleep.