Virginia endures a grotesque Bonerider revel as allied Gold houses arrive with Niobe’s fleet and the Vox fleet forms a blockade over Luna. Observing the depravity and the looming battle, she studies the Augustus clone and Lilath’s sycophancy. She engages the clone with puzzle volleys, noting his delight and a telling surprise at her skill.

Realizing Lilath hid parts of Adrius’s past, Virginia prods the clone with specific memories, exposing omissions and seeding distrust. He publicly humiliates and rebukes Lilath, orders Virginia’s confiscated puzzles restored from Lilath’s quarters, and suspends fleet aggression while he investigates, revealing his authority over the Boneriders.

In Virginia’s office, the clone paralyzes her legs via psychoSpike and speaks about Lilath’s tutelage, his engineered rise, and a nihilistic ethic equating culling people to slaughtering cattle. Virginia counters, contrasting their father’s failures and the siblings’ divergent responses. The clone coldly vows to kill Lilath in an “iron wolf,” confirming his affectless cruelty and outsider identity.

With the fleets’ clash imminent, Virginia abandons a long con to save the Republic’s strength sooner. She tempts the clone with her Pandemonium Chair research, needling his inability to erase memories. As he tests her with pain, she performs a Bellona-style offering with a single live night lily, exploiting cultural reflex and his lack of training; he takes it roughly, and Virginia commits to her decisive gambit.