Cardinal Bock leads Alex through the Celestial Palace to a heavily guarded, magically sealed chamber for a formal test of identity. Alex is deeply doubtful and frightened, but follows because Duke Michael continues to encourage her. Inside the bright ritual hall, Bock places Alex inside a brass circle and warns her not to step out, showing that the ceremony is dangerous as well as official.

Two chained, blindfolded Oracles are carried in and made to touch Alex's hands. In their trance, they speak in disjointed visions: elves and their gods, the Pillar of Troy, ordeals, a hunt, teeth, blood, a circle, a wheel, and fire. When one says there is "fire at her beginning" and Bock links it to Pyrogennetos, Duke Michael takes this as the decisive sign that Alex was born in the imperial bedchamber of Troy. The Oracles begin to burn from within, so Bock ends the ritual and formally dictates a declaration naming Alex the true Princess Alexia and rightful heir to the Serpent Throne.

Afterward, Duke Michael explains that Pyrogennetos is the highest proof of imperial legitimacy. Bock signs the certification in the Pope's name, and Alex realizes that what began as a useful lie has become an official and dangerous reality. As the Oracles are carried away, one whispers a final warning that "they will eat us all," leaving the scene with an ominous note.

Later, at dinner with Cardinal Zizka and Duke Michael, Alex focuses on eating and drinking while Zizka speaks about Church politics, the threat of the elves, and the need to reunite East and West. Michael produces a letter from Lady Severa in Troy, and Alex learns that Eudoxia's four sons are competing for power. Zizka and Michael make clear that these dukes are wealthy, violent, politically connected, and willing to use spies, assassins, forbidden magic, and worse to secure the throne.

Michael then reveals the deeper history: Eudoxia murdered Alex's mother, seized the throne, founded a coven in Troy, and pursued soul-related experiments by combining human and animal bodies. Zizka presents this as extreme heresy that must be destroyed along with Eudoxia's bloodline. Alex is told she must travel secretly to Troy under protection while proof of her identity is circulated ahead of her, then make her claim before her cousins can consolidate power. Alex protests that she is unfit and outmatched, but Michael insists she has the right, and Zizka ends the chapter by promising that if the enemy has devils, the Church has devils of its own.