Darrow collapses beside Julian’s corpse, consumed by guilt and the realization that the Passage was a calculated test to make the winners carry their victims’ deaths. He vows to remember, not to become numb like the ruling Golds, and to carry each sin toward the goal of freedom.

Expecting manipulation, Darrow anticipates that shared murder will bind survivors. He meets a bleeding Roque and the aloof Antonia, dreading Cassius’s inevitable grief and anger. They enter a medieval-like castle hall centered on a plinth with a golden Primus hand. After washing and dressing in black-and-gold fatigues, Darrow breaks down in solitude until Roque consoles him, explaining the Board of Quality Control’s belief in managed natural selection and the Passage as its extension.

In the dining hall, names hover over chairs and beneath the Primus hand. Sevro eats alone; Titus looms, grinning. Roque comforts the limping Lea. Cassius greets Darrow, resets his shoulder, boasts of a quick kill, and asks about Julian; Darrow lies about his opponent as dread builds. Several students, including Arria and the famed Priam, are missing.

Fitchner arrives and bluntly reframes the Passage as the Culling, citing numbers and precedent to justify the waste. He outlines the Institute’s purpose—hardening leaders, securing apprenticeships—and reveals the next phase: in a remote terraformed valley, twelve Houses will wage war by any means to dominate. Antonia asks the prize; glory awaits the Primus of the winning House. Darrow decides he must become Primus.

After a plain meal, Cassius proposes everyone confess their kills; no one complies, and Sevro departs first. Darrow makes small talk with Roque and the overbearing Titus, growing wary of Titus’s domineering nature. Later, as the castle seems to swallow the murder sites, Darrow finds a dormitory and falls asleep to distant wolves.