House Mars dissolves into four factions within days: Antonia gathers the politicos and midDrafters; Titus collects the violent highDrafts, including Pollux and Vixus; Darrow and Cassius lead a band of lowDraft “dregs”; and Sevro operates alone. While scouting, Darrow and Cassius spot medBots and Proctors racing south, hinting at turmoil beyond their valley.

Darrow’s group survives by secretly cooking with matches only he possesses. He forces every member to earn food, guiding Lea through her first kill and staging a fight—via Thistle—to harden her resolve. They cache sheep, cook at night in hidden gullies, and map terrain, but still lack real weapons.

Darrow and Roque witness Titus’s starving soldiers eating raw deer, a sign of rapid decline. Roque urges sharing matches to unite the House before external enemies strike; Cassius and Darrow refuse, fearing it would cement Titus’s rule. Roque presses Darrow to peel away Titus’s captains to heal Mars.

Acting on that advice, Darrow seeks Vixus in the keep but is intercepted when Titus returns early. Titus confiscates Darrow’s scouting maps and, smelling woodsmoke, accuses him of hoarding fire. Vixus and Pollux crowd him, hurling insults and threats as Vixus moves to humiliate and mutilate him.

Darrow answers with sudden precision, smashing Vixus’s jugular with Helldiver strength and battering him senseless before sprinting past the stunned enforcers. He escapes the keep, insisting to himself that he did not kill Vixus, even as the clash signals a dangerous escalation in Mars’s internal war.