Darrow decides Titus must die, fearing Titus’s vengeful instability endangers every carved Red and Eo’s dream. At dawn, Darrow sentences Titus before House Mars, but Titus contests and calls for a duel with straight blades. Cassius quietly asks to fight in House Bellona’s honor, and despite Roque and Quinn’s disapproval, Darrow grants the request.

In the circle, Titus chooses a broadsword while Cassius wields a sharpened straight blade. The fight becomes a deliberate execution as Cassius repeats, “You killed Julian,” stabbing Titus again and again. The courtyard falls silent; Quinn weeps, and Roque escorts her away. Afterward, Roque tells Darrow it was not justice. Darrow recognizes he permitted revenge, not law, and later buries Titus by the river, mourning a fellow Red even as his own primus standing rises alongside Cassius’s.

On night watch, Fitchner appears with roast duck and admits the Proctors let events play out, calling the Institute a crucible to study how humans rule, fight, and fracture. He references Board-set death limits, hints Cassius may someday learn the truth about Julian, and notes that Apollo despises Darrow while Mercury finds him brilliant.

Darrow probes Fitchner’s outsider insecurity and metabolizer use, provoking anger but also a grudging admission of ambition. When discussing rewards for capturing Minerva’s standard, Fitchner grants Darrow horses, weapons, and matches. A touch shocks Darrow—Fitchner wears concealed pulseArmor. Before leaving, Fitchner discloses that the Jackal is the ArchGovernor’s son, far more dangerous than Titus.

At dawn, amid wolves harrying the herd, Darrow claims a pale stallion the others nickname Quietus. Only later does he realize the name is a jab at his role in Titus’s death, even as he prepares for the looming contest for primus and the threat of the Jackal.