Closing on the Heart of Jovan’s likely location in a ruined hilltop fortress, Vis and Aequa use the tracking plate to refine positions. The plate indicates proximity to a recent elimination, prompting Vis to investigate despite Aequa’s reluctance. They uncover a mass grave: numerous safety team members and Sianus, all with skulls crushed by powerful Will, confirming the attackers have replaced the safety teams and can track the competitors.

Recognizing the slaughter as a trap and the precursor to a larger assault that night, Vis and Aequa decide to warn the remaining teams. They take a severed hand as proof before moving. As they travel, they debate who benefits: the Anguis are the obvious culprits, but Vis points out Military could gain if Religion is blamed for failing to protect the Academy. He also reveals Indol’s plan to defect to Religion, complicating the political stakes.

Approaching Indol’s high-ground camp from behind to avoid his sentries, Vis sends Aequa with the tracking plate to reach the final surviving team—likely Emissa’s—while he confronts Indol alone. Vis presents the severed hand and explains that the Anguis intend to strike that night, tracking contestants through their medallions. The tangible proof convinces Indol, who admits he had eliminated Sianus earlier and had expected the safety teams to collect the bodies.

Indol immediately orders Axien to warn and disperse his spread-out Fourths, instructing them to create decoys by floating or abandoning medallions and then to scatter west across the river, where tracking may fail. Vis urges Indol to beware his father, suggesting possible Military complicity based on what he overheard at Suus. When Vis mentions Emissa told him of Indol’s planned defection, Indol reveals he never told her, implying Emissa lied about her source.

Before departing, Indol tosses Vis a clinking sack and confirms that Emissa’s team is the green marker, the only other group left. Indol vanishes into the woods to draw pursuit, while Aequa races to warn the last team and the plan remains to regroup with Callidus and discard trackers.