Darrow walks among hundreds of blinded, maimed legionnaires outside Heliopolis, recognizing the Fear Knight’s campaign to erode morale. He comforts a wounded Gray and then meets Dago of Gamma, an aging Helldiver from Lykos, who shares Mars soil and bids him “Till the Vale,” rekindling Darrow’s resolve. Felix, a Gold bodyguard, summons him to depart.

In flight north over the Waste of Ladon, Darrow surveys Heliopolis’s wall and the fear saturating troops and civilians as Atalantia’s fleet looms and Atlas’s guerrillas terrorize. Determined not to bleed out in a siege, he concludes he must destroy fear before it destroys his army.

Darrow outlines his wider strategy: Howlers drive the Fear Knight toward a trap at Eleusis, Thraxa and Alexandar lead the hunt, southern archipelagos are fortified, and Tyche remains the fortified headquarters linked to Heliopolis by gravLoop. After logistics briefings, he finds Rhonna guarding Orion. Rhonna reports Orion’s instability, then asks to fight with her cohort when the Rain falls. Darrow, burdened by guilt and a promise to family, refuses and redirects her to equipment calibration.

Darrow meets Orion alone in the cargo bay. Thin and scarred, she clings to cold and isolation, sketching calculus in frost. Their talk turns to the fleet’s loss: Orion blames Harnassus and Virginia for obeying the Senate, recounts Atlas’s torture, and condemns demokracy as a nest of “rats” that gnaw at those who protect them. Darrow’s own doubts surface, acknowledging contingency operations because hope is not a plan.

When Orion challenges his authority, Darrow crushes the moment of doubt, demanding performance over opinion. He orders her to sync her Blues and be sharp for zero hour. Orion snaps to attention and complies, while Darrow drives forward toward the coming confrontation with the Fear Knight.