At dawn, Fitchner is gone, leaving House Mars’s iron standard, which can brand and command slaves, and a new stone map. Antonia, Cassius, Darrow, Sevro, and others gather amid posturing. Cassius pushes for an immediate leader; Titus needles him; Darrow defuses the confrontation without blood. Antonia outmaneuvers them by insisting leadership must wait for a Primus via merit, appealing to every student’s ambition and stalling any clear chain of command.

A horn sounds and the standard and wall map shimmer to life, marking Mars and Ceres. The room collapses into bickering and faction-making. Darrow, Cassius, Roque, and Lea peel off to act, deciding scouting is safer and smarter than preparing and being struck. They split—Darrow with Cassius, Roque with Lea—to circle the highlands and meet at dusk.

The scouts find no enemies near the keep but discover a hidden stone fort with survival supplies, confirming caches are seeded across the valley. Distant smoke to the east hints at other Houses. Back home, Titus’s pack grows; they fail to make fire after Sevro vanishes, and Darrow withholds matches to deny Titus prestige. Antonia briefly garrisons the towers with Cipio, but Titus’s boys steal their axes. Conditions worsen: hunger spreads, Ceres horsemen abduct two bathing girls, and Titus even tries the standard on Quinn—learning it won’t enslave Housemates.

As Darrow and Cassius scout, they resolve that Mars must be bound together and privately weigh removing Titus, with Cassius proposing killing him in his sleep. Cassius remains popular and flirts with Quinn, while Roque frames the Institute as a microcosm where hierarchies will form—functionally capture the flag with standards.

Returning to the parapets, they see Vixus, Titus’s lieutenant, dragging in a captive girl—the first slave of House Mars. The capture grants Titus immediate credibility, sharpening the internal power struggle and raising the stakes for Darrow and Cassius to unify the House before rivals strike.