Lyria and other abducted girls are paraded before Red Hand fighters for a crude “choosing” ceremony. Harmony presides, rewarding killers with childwives. Duncan O’Cyros selects Lyria, and the drugged ritual leaves her nauseated but focused on finding Volga and Victra.

On the dance floor, Lyria goads Duncan into boasting about Red Hand strength and prisoners. She seduces him into taking her to the mines, where she secretly doses growlers of swill with haemanthus. In the heat and noise below, overseer Darran accepts the drink and presents an Obsidian chain gang. Lyria spots a brutalized Volga, who silently acknowledges her before being driven back to work.

Back at Duncan’s house, Lyria probes his conscience, then deploys Fig’s V-7 acid from her implanted tooth when he tries to force himself on her. As the acid devours him, she coerces the location of Victra—sealed in an old jail on the fourth level—then lets Duncan die. She arms herself with his pistol and a pulse rifle, hoping the drugged guards will give Volga an opening.

Lyria rushes out to move on Victra, but six Red Hands await her outside, with Tails pointing her out, cutting short her attempt to strike first.