Torgay leads Dinios Kol and Immunis Ghrelin deeper through the Shroud citadel, explaining that the facility has an outer operations layer and a more dangerous inner layer. Din is taken only to a review chamber beside the inner section, and Torgay gives strict rules for the interview: Din must keep his suit on, avoid personal talk, and never make rhythmic sounds that might provoke the augurs. The warnings emphasize how unstable and pattern-hungry the augurs have become.

Inside the chamber, Din finds a thick glass barrier dividing two plain rooms, with tapping boards set on the chairs. While they wait, Ghrelin fixates intensely on the origins and making of the glass, speaking with manic, sensory fascination that confirms Din's suspicion that the augury has deeply altered him. A door opens on the far side, and two resident augurs enter wearing robes nearly buried under pinned notes and calculations.

The augurs communicate by tapping on wooden boards, and Ghrelin answers in kind until he can voice their words aloud. As he interprets, Ghrelin seems to surrender his own speech, becoming a conduit for the two minds beyond the glass. The augurs immediately analyze Din's appearance and reactions, identifying him as Tala, noting that his algaecloth suit was not prepared for him, and concluding that his arrival was sudden and caused by a serious event outside the Shroud.

When Din says he has come to ask about a former augur, the pair quickly guesses that he means Sunus Pyktis. They explain that Din's visit was predicted and that Pyktis's reported death never made sense to them, because such a crude error did not fit the brilliant man they knew. The augurs press Din for news of Pyktis and the outside world, trying to bargain information for information, and they also grow curious that Din seems unusually accustomed to beings like them, which makes Din worry they may turn their attention toward Ana.

Remembering Thelenai's instructions not to answer their questions, Din first resists, then deliberately breaks protocol to redirect them. He states that Pyktis is alive and intends great harm, because he needs their help to stop him. The revelation shocks both augurs: they insist Pyktis was troubled but not villainous, and the claim unsettles their confidence in their own predictions. Faced with the possibility that they misunderstood him, they finally agree to tell Din everything they observed about Pyktis, starting from the beginning.