Vis regains consciousness bound to a tree, bruised and aching, with Callidus similarly restrained nearby. Iro, Belli, and Felix have ambushed them; Belli taunts and strikes Vis, but they refrain from further injury to avoid disqualification. They have not yet eliminated Vis, signaling they want leverage. When Vis proposes an alliance, Iro refuses Vis specifically, courting Aequa instead.

Under pressure and determined not to lose, Aequa appears to betray Vis, allowing Iro to link her medallion to his. She argues against destroying Vis’s medallion, insisting they carry it to obscure his elimination status. Iro’s group strips Vis and Callidus of their cloaks and departs with Vis’s white medallion, leaving the two tied to trees, expecting Sextii to collect them.

As night falls, Vis and Callidus wait in the cold and analyze Aequa’s motives. Vis realizes Aequa took the cloaks because Vis had hidden his internal tracker there, intending to wield it as a weapon to redirect Sextii. The two debate the Iudicium’s design—rewarding ruthlessness and opportunism—and share candid truths; Callidus reveals Veridius offered him Domitor if he personally returned the Heart, yet he chose to stay with Vis. Their talk underscores Callidus’s instinct to trust versus Vis’s guarded pragmatism.

Hours later, Aequa returns alone by torchlight, cuts them free, and explains her plan. She had slipped Vis’s internal tracker into Iro’s dinner; in the morning she will propose acting as a decoy with Vis’s medallion, separating it from the tracker now in Iro’s stomach. That separation will draw the Sextii to Iro’s team and get them eliminated, after which Aequa will retrieve Vis’s medallion and rendezvous. She also explains how Iro’s group got ahead—skirting west until a cliff forced them back east—creating the opening for her to double-cross them.

Reunited and mobile, Vis and Callidus follow Aequa into the forest, their prospects abruptly revived by Aequa’s calculated deception and the looming collapse of Iro’s alliance.