Before the Serpent Throne, Jakob judges Duke Michael as a disciplined and dangerous swordsman, and he studies the room for every advantage before they engage. Michael then wins the opening exchange with a simple deception: Michael says Alex’s name, Jakob glances aside, and Michael drives his sword into Jakob’s side. Jakob survives the thrust, but the duel immediately turns from a measured contest into a desperate fight for survival.

Outside, Brother Diaz, Baptiste, and Vigga face the worst of Eudoxia’s creations: a grotesque leftover monster made from unfinished parts. Terrified, Vigga gives herself over to the wolf within and meets the thing head-on. The wolf-form tears the monster apart, lures it into the trees, traps it, and rips open its belly, but the victory fails because the creature splits loose and the front half surges forward. The monster overwhelms Vigga with its many limbs and mouths and swallows her whole.

In the Athenaeum, Balthazar enters the vast, dark library and examines the remains of Eudoxia’s experimental apparatus. By studying rods, jars, runes, and the paired benches, Balthazar works out that Eudoxia was not merely trying to locate or free the soul, but to transfer it from one body to another. Severa attacks with lightning, and Balthazar barely survives by using a splitting rune to divide the blast. The exchange confirms Balthazar’s theory: Severa is actually Empress Eudoxia, who successfully moved her soul into Severa’s body.

On the Pharos, Baron Rikard keeps Alex and the handmaidens enthralled and makes Zenonis burn Cleofa alive for his pleasure. The strain shows on Rikard’s body, however, and his hold starts to weaken as the women notice the horror around them. Athenais breaks first and attacks him, but Rikard turns to smoke, re-forms behind her, and kills her by tearing out her throat. Alex then smashes Zenonis with a fallen stone, and Sunny helps finish the job by tripping Zenonis into the void. Placidia freezes Rikard’s arms and thinks she has him, but Rikard uses his last strength to throw Placidia into Saint Natalia’s Flame. Placidia burns to death, and Rikard survives only as an ancient, badly burned wreck.

The chapter returns to Jakob, who continues fighting despite having Michael’s sword through his body and an elf-dagger lodged in his ribs. As Jakob staggers after him, Michael argues that Troy needs a ruthless ruler against the coming elves and insists that power belongs to the one who seizes it. Jakob refuses Michael’s logic and keeps advancing, but the fight is slipping away from him. After a crash from above distracts the room, Michael topples a statue onto Jakob, crushing him to the floor and pinning his arm. Michael leaves him there, badly wounded and trapped, with the struggle for Troy still unresolved.