Jakob painfully climbs to the top gallery of the Pharos of Troy, where Saint Natalia's Flame burns above the city. Duke Michael is waiting there, looking south toward the lands from which the elves once came and may come again. The setting prompts a conversation about duty, belief, and the future, while Jakob's physical suffering underscores how worn and old he has become.

Duke Michael presses Jakob on why he serves with the Chapel when, unlike the others, he was not condemned to it. Jakob explains that he once believed he was chosen for greatness and used that belief to justify ambition, bloodshed, and sacrifice, only to discover that his supposed destiny was self-serving illusion. Because of that failure, Jakob now prefers to be an instrument in another's hands rather than the one who decides what is right, even if others might call that cowardice.

Brother Diaz arrives at the top and learns about Saint Natalia's Flame and the blue-warning chain that would signal an elven attack. The talk then turns to immediate politics: Jakob urges that Princess Alexia be crowned quickly, and Duke Michael says support exists among the people and within the palace guard. Michael believes Eudoxia's coven has been broken, but he warns that opposition remains from more ordinary powers, especially the clergy and the nobles, who are bargaining for advantage.

Michael says Patriarch Methodius has been persuaded to recognize Alexia's claim, though the Church of the East remains wary of papal influence. The nobles are described as selfish and extortionate, but Michael identifies Eudoxia's surviving son Arcadius as the greatest danger, since as admiral he controls the fleet and could blockade Troy. While reviewing the nobles' demands, Brother Diaz becomes interested in the Athenaeum's records and asks to consult them; Michael agrees, while warning that dangerous remnants from Eudoxia's era are still sealed beneath the place.

After Brother Diaz leaves, Duke Michael wonders whether the monk has hidden depths, and Jakob replies that Diaz is a man searching for purpose, which could make him far more consequential if he finds one. Looking over the city, Jakob reveals that he stood on this same tower more than a century earlier during the Second Crusade and recognizes the weathered carvings of long-dead heroes, including his own. That memory leads him to reflect that yesterday's heroes become tomorrow's ghosts, and when Michael asks whether the elves are truly as terrible as people say, Jakob answers that they are no worse than men, which means they are indeed terrible.