As the group reaches Venice, Brother Diaz pauses to write a flattering letter to his mother about Bishop Apollonia and the pilgrimage. Princess Alexia joins him, and Diaz offers to teach Alex to write. Alex carefully forms the letter A, and the moment briefly gives Diaz a sense of purpose. Jakob, Vigga, Balthazar, and Baptiste arrive joking about Vigga sleeping with pilgrims from the rear of the company, just before Bishop Apollonia approaches and asks Diaz to help lead prayers.

Diaz explains that he and his companions must leave the Blessed Company, but Apollonia calmly reveals that Alexia must stay with her. When Diaz falters, Apollonia shows that she knows his real name and identity, and her armed guards close in. More threatening pilgrims and rogues also gather. Apollonia admits that Duke Constans of Troy has offered a rich reward for Alex, while Apollonia herself wants holy relics that could raise her standing in the Church. Diaz, shocked that the woman he admired is motivated by ambition, denounces her hypocrisy.

Apollonia escalates the confrontation by publicly declaring that monsters and heretics are traveling among the pilgrims. The crowd begins turning into a mob around the Chapel, while Jakob prepares to fight, Vigga readies herself to become more monstrous, Baptiste draws hidden blades, and Balthazar reveals a severed sorceress's hand as proof of dangerous magic. Sunny suddenly appears behind Apollonia and puts a knife to the bishop's throat, but the standoff keeps tightening as armed guards, thugs, and pilgrims all move toward violence.

At the crisis point, Baron Rikard steps into the portable pulpit and begins speaking. His apparently rambling account of his wife, his estates, and local dumplings exerts vampire glamour over everyone present. The bishop, guards, rogues, and pilgrims become utterly entranced, drop their weapons, and submit to his instructions. Rikard commands them to continue to Cyprus and forget him, Sunny, any sorcery, and even the presence of Alex and the Chapel. He gives Bishop Apollonia one specific punishment: an unreachable itch for the rest of the pilgrimage and return journey.

The Chapel then withdraws down toward Venice while the pilgrims remain dazed or directionless. Baptiste explains that Rikard's glamour will fade after an hour or two, and Balthazar and Vigga complain that the fight was interrupted. Diaz, however, is still overwhelmed by the speech and can think only of how profound Rikard's words seemed, eagerly asking the exhausted vampire to tell him more about the dumplings.