In the Asteri dungeons, Hunt anticipates another round of cruelty when the Hawk leaves the cell door open and dreadwolves flood in. Mordoc and the unit unchain Hunt, Ruhn, and Baxian, and the Hawk announces that Rigelus demands an immediate audience, making it clear the suffering is meant to grind Hunt into submission.

Despite broken bodies and starvation rations, the three males force themselves upright. Ruhn is so weak that he nearly collapses, and the dreadwolves end up dragging him along the corridor, while Hunt focuses on enduring step by step and on keeping Ruhn alive at any cost.

They are herded to the elevators, where the Hind, Lidia Cervos, waits in an immaculate uniform with her arm bandaged in a sling. She trades barbed remarks with the Hawk, complains about the prisoners’ filth, and limits who enters the elevator, ordering Mordoc to wait upstairs while only two soldiers join them.

As the elevator rises into the crystal palace, daylight blinds the dungeon-weary prisoners. The Hawk mocks them and hints at worse to come from Rigelus, but Hunt refuses to beg and spits defiance.

Lidia coolly echoes Hunt’s insult toward the Hawk—then abruptly draws her gun and shoots the Hawk between the eyes, killing him in the elevator.