Vigga wakes naked, hungover, and blood-tasting in a hayloft beside an equally naked, bewildered man she does not recognize. Her confusion, missing clothes, and the stable filth emphasize the usual chaos of her nights. After dressing herself in whatever she can find, washing as best she can, and dismissing the man, she heads outside and realizes she is high above Troy on the Grand Aqueduct.

Across from the stable, Vigga finds Baron Rikard waiting at a tavern. He says he stayed to make sure she caused no more trouble after disgracing herself in a fountain the previous night. Rikard has already arranged food for her, and Vigga devours a bloody joint of meat despite resenting the way he treats her like an animal. The scene also shows Rikard feeding discreetly on blood in a wineglass and effortlessly enthralling women around him, underlining that he is managing his own monstrous appetites in a polished, predatory way.

As they walk the aqueduct, Rikard reminds Vigga that Alexia's coronation is near and their mission is almost over. Vigga's fear of heights and crowds makes Troy feel especially hostile to her, and Rikard needles her with elegant cruelty about her clumsy manner and animal nature. Their bickering turns into a deeper argument about whether Vigga truly controls the wolf inside her or merely excuses it when it breaks loose.

Vigga insists that, despite past transformations at the inn, on the galley, and at Saint Sebastian's, she now chooses when to become the wolf. She claims that no captor, commander, moon, or inner beast rules her anymore, and that she can be "nice, and safe, and clean" on the inside even if she is filthy on the outside. Rikard mocks the idea at first, but when he catches himself staring hungrily at another woman's throat and forces himself to turn away, he quietly admits that he wishes he were clean inside too. The chapter ends by contrasting Vigga's hard-won belief in self-mastery with Rikard's painful sense that he has not achieved it.