Hrunkner Unnerby lands at Calorica Bay on the First Day of the Dark after a short flight from High Equatoria. Traveling with bodyguards Arla Undergate and Brun Soulac, he nearly spills a pannier, briefly revealing shale-colored rock flour. Airport Intelligence quietly takes the cargo in armored cars, and Unnerby declines their escort, choosing to walk before his scheduled meeting with the chief.

Outside, the trio encounters startling warmth from the volcanic caldera despite the Dark’s onset. Crowds flood the waterfront, some playing in the heated bay with pontoons while molten rock glows at the center. The spectacle mixes delight and shock, and Unnerby retreats from the water’s edge, unsettled by the danger and decadence.

They pass through a forest lit by reactor-powered lights and filled with imported lazy woodsfairies, where oophase youths dance wildly. Unnerby’s old revulsions toward oophase behavior conflict with his respect for individuals; a glimpse of a youngster’s molt and the general excess deepen his unease. He reflects that any deepness here would be lethal from ground heat, even as the volcano and fission plant make the surface deceptively comfortable.

Climbing toward the ring of mansions on the crater wall, the trio observes darker, colder heights and shuttered estates above. Under the starry sky and dim red sun, Arla and Brun admit their own fear at the Dark’s finality. With the revels behind them, they search for the funicular to continue upward, keeping their appointment and preserving the secrecy around the rock-flour mission.