Lysander, monitored by the Rising, arrives at Glirastes’s mountain estate and plays the role of a frivolous guest while observing the decay of the house and staff absences. He studies Heliopolis through Glirastes’s telescope and notices overloaded missile skiffs at the spaceport feeding the Morning Star. Calculations lead Lysander to infer hidden iridium and conclude Darrow is constructing a sustained EMP rather than merely rearming.

After staging a pretext to reach the cellar, Lysander meets Glirastes privately behind the shielded walls. They exchange accounts of the past, and Lysander admits Atalantia plans chemicals. Glirastes, burdened by guilt over Tyche and disillusioned by Gold and Rising alike, refuses to help. Lysander counters with a manipulative tale about refugees at the Water Colossus, warning that Atalantia will seize Glirastes’s works.

That night, with the monitor frozen, Glirastes brings Lysander to his workshop, reveals the orbital city model “Oculus,” and recounts the blind Copper’s story to explain why he builds—for the life around stone. He confesses aiding Darrow’s engineers on a device to help the Rising escape and, despairing, asks what to do.

Lysander urges Glirastes to trust him and promises a spectacle proving Heliopolis saved itself, not abetted the Rising. As they speak, Exeter enters with the household staff; he kneels and proclaims Lysander the Heir of Silenius. The staff swear loyalty.

Lysander tasks Glirastes to discreetly select loyal, influential figures of each Color and spread word that the Society’s heir has returned. He positions the nascent network to retake Heliopolis—not for Atalantia, but for the city and the Society—and to counter Darrow’s EMP-driven escape plan.