Din wakes in a drugged, dreamlike state as Apoths dress him in an algaeoil suit and warding helm for the journey into the Shroud. Still slowed by katapra, Din reaches the shore and boards a cargo ship with Immunis Ghrelin. Ghrelin checks that Din can still perceive and respond, then warns Din to follow him exactly once they arrive, because the Shroud is crowded with dangerous work tied to the marrow. Ghrelin also points out the pier and nearby warehouses as the planned restocking point for moving the marrow inland, but says previous searches there found nothing useful.

While they wait aboard ship, Ghrelin explains that he will escort Din to the augurs and then mentally change as his grafts take hold. Din asks what augury inside the Shroud is like, and Ghrelin answers only in vague terms, describing it as collective, intimate work unlike ordinary life. When Din asks whether Ghrelin's memories have been altered to keep him from speaking more plainly, Ghrelin sharply denies it and says such tampering, if truly used, would be reserved for even darker imperial secrets.

The ship sails away from Yarrowdale and out into open water until the crew warns that they are nearing the Shroud. Din finally sees it up close and realizes it is not fabric or a wall, but a vast, layered, living organism grown from leviathan tissue. Ghrelin notes that he helped repair part of it in the past. As Din studies its movement, he understands that the Shroud is not merely blowing in the wind but flexing on its own, confirming that it is fully alive and singular.

The ship turns toward an asymmetrical section of the Shroud fitted with chains and hidden mechanisms. Ghrelin reflects on how people once worshipped leviathans as gods and wonders what it means that the Empire now kills such beings and remakes their flesh for its own purposes. The Shroud opens to admit the vessel, and Din sees the hidden structure inside: a sprawling hybrid citadel of flesh, brick, metal, bone, pipes, and living tissue, swarming with workers in protective suits who constantly build, feed, and repair it. As the veil closes behind them, Din enters the green interior, now at the threshold of his interview with the augurs and a deeper confrontation with the Empire's monstrous machinery.