Alex lands neatly on a carriage roof but immediately ruins her escape by botching the jump down, twisting her ankle, colliding with a donkey, and cursing at bystanders, including a startled monk in the carriage. Knowing pursuers are close, Alex steals a prayer-cloth, disguises herself among penitents, and limps away while reflecting on her usual pattern of chasing pleasure and ending in trouble.

When Alex is spotted, she forces her way through the crowd and into the fish market near the Pale Sisters. Bostro’s men pursue her through stalls and wagons, and Alex fights back fiercely despite her injury. She punches, spits, kicks, and finally smashes one thug with a frying pan, but the chase continues as she stumbles across fish stalls, falls badly, and blunders into a dead-end alley.

In the alley, Bostro and his two thugs corner Alex on behalf of Papa Collini, who wants repayment of a debt Alex took on. Alex first throws Bostro a purse filled with dirt, then tries to buy time with excuses and a fake relic she calls the fingerbones of Saint Lucius, but the men are not fooled. After Alex keeps insisting she will find money somehow, Bostro’s men restrain her, Bostro punches the fight out of her, grabs her by the throat, and prepares iron pincers to take either her teeth or her fingers as punishment.

Before Bostro can begin, a richly dressed stranger interrupts. The man introduces himself as Duke Michael of Nicaea, with his servant Eusebius, and asks whether Alex has a birthmark beneath her ear. After confirming it, Duke Michael declares that Alex is actually Princess Alexia Pyrogennetos, the long-lost daughter of Empress Irene and rightful heir to the Serpent Throne of Troy. Bostro and his men are stunned, but still object because Alex owes money and injured one of them. Duke Michael first tosses them a few coins for their trouble, then reveals Eusebius has brought him a sword and makes clear that the coins are all their lives are worth if they do not release Alex.