Virginia sits in Pax’s room, mourning and reflecting on his inventions, when Deanna arrives and urges action. Deanna orchestrates a meeting with Dancer at the lake house; Sevro emerges from hiding, drawing Dancer’s ire for being a fugitive. Virginia halts the argument by revealing that Pax and Electra were kidnapped by the Syndicate, explaining Sevro’s presence on Luna.

Virginia plays a reverie extracted from the captured Duke of Hands, showing Dancer’s intimate encounter with him. Dancer initially believes Virginia is blackmailing him, but Sevro clarifies the point: the lover—known to Dancer as Faustus—was the Syndicate’s Duke of Hands. Shocked, Dancer admits the relationship and worries he endangered Pax. Virginia explains he was likely framed as a scapegoat to compromise her, not to glean secrets. She outlines a plan to align Reds and Obsidians by returning mine profits to Reds through a partnership with Sefi.

They examine who benefits from her compromise and an impending Forum vote. Daxo is dismissed as implausible; Virginia and Dancer converge on Publius as the likely collaborator with the Queen/Atalantia, given his cross-faction appeal and timing. With the vote imminent, they agree to quietly gather proof later while uniting now to prevent the enemy from exploiting divisions.

Sevro destroys the reverie device to protect Dancer. Dancer then reveals his past: his clan mutilated him; Ares saved and empowered him, shaping his faith in Red dignity. Betrayed by Gold’s masks in the past, he realizes this new plot again uses a Golden hand to poison trust and divide allies.

Recentered, Dancer commits his votes to Virginia and the mission to rescue the Free Legions. Virginia’s strategy coalesces: pursue the Red–Obsidian profit-sharing to secure Mars, expose Publius in time, and maintain unity against the Queen and Atalantia.