Carl consults Mordecai after Bomo brings Edict, a male mantis merchant, to Carl’s personal space doorway in Zockau. Mordecai warns that Edict cannot forcibly teleport anyone from a personal space, but he can observe and report what he sees. Carl questions Edict and learns that Edict attacked Bomo twice inside a saferoom, earning two escalating punishments from the dungeon’s safety system.

Edict explains that he is not a warrior but an accountant and trader for the Dark Hive, with loot already contractually sold to the Burrowers. Carl tries to pressure Edict into handing over the goods in exchange for protection from Vrah, whose venereal infection Carl wants to keep from spreading. Edict refuses, saying that if he breaks contract, his family and hive will be financially ruined, but if he obeys Vrah and mates with her, he will bring cultural shame and likely death on his own people.

As Edict talks, Carl realizes the mantis is not merely frightened but cornered. Edict reveals more about mantis customs: pairings are tightly controlled, and mating ends with the female eating the male’s head while his body continues the act. Edict says the only honorable path left is to die in battle. He also bitterly denounces his civilization’s expansion into the stars, calling it a slow death and linking that ruinous growth to wider galactic decline.

Vrah then arrives in the hallway, limping and still burning from the infection. Carl gives Edict permission to enter the personal space, and Edict immediately attacks Carl for a third time. That final saferoom violation triggers the dungeon’s punishment: Edict is stripped and teleported to the nearest monster nest, which Carl assumes will kill him. A huge pile of gold drops from Edict’s disappearance point, suggesting he still carried substantial wealth. Vrah remains outside, wracked by pain, while Carl shuts the door, reopens his exit to the ruined Alucarda tavern, and prepares to leave before Lucia or other hunters return.