In fevered memory, young Lysander climbs the icy steps at Lake Silene under Octavia’s ruthless tutelage. After she engineers his fall, she forces him to master pain and awareness, warning that gifted minds must never sleep and are owed nothing but death. The “Mind’s Eye” lesson fixes itself in him.

The narrative returns to the Mercury desert where Lysander, half his face melted and his left eye destroyed, staggers with a ragged group led by one‑armed Kalindora. Predators and scavengers roamed the killing field after the battle; Rhone and Kalindora helped free survivors before Rising troops rounded up Praetorians for transport south to Heliopolis. Ajax, having lost, fled; few of his men escaped.

The survivors—seven Golds including Kalindora and Cicero, with a handful of Grays—trudge north toward Erebos with failing water and dead coms. They salvage rations and water from a crashed stork and make camp, listening to distant ships. Cicero lightens spirits with stories of Nero and a young Darrow, while Lysander endures fever dreams of a silver chair and a white door.

Later, Cicero privately argues their water cannot carry everyone and implies culling Grays to save the rest. Lysander, clinging to principle and command, refuses and threatens to stop him. Cicero vents about Atalantia’s exploitation of his world and his family’s weakness, but withdraws. Kalindora, having overheard, quietly takes the watch as their trek and peril continue.