Qiwi guides Tomas Nau and Ali Lin into a huge, diamond cavern beneath Hammerfest, envisioned as a grand park. Ali inspects the raw floor, while Qiwi overlays a lake-and-forest design from Nau’s childhood estate and proposes a real lake, stabilized by starship servo valves and localizers to damp waves. Nau is delighted but notes the work and resources; Qiwi counters that scrap hardware and her accumulated favors will suffice.

They return upward, leaving Ali in his garden workshop. Nau privately exults in owning Qiwi as his greatest unFocused triumph and in how her black-market “managed freedom” has improved operations. He contemplates the On/Off system’s promise, an unprecedented empire built on Focus and markets, and ultimately the need to dispose of Qiwi before Exile ends—while still using her genetics for heirs and pursuing harsh measures against the Spiders.

Qiwi heads to Benny’s parlor, bargaining for wallpaper, volatiles, and feedstock while navigating rival claims from Gonle Fong and Ritser Brughel. She spots Ezr with Xin’s gang, tries to greet him, and is rebuffed. The moment reopens old pain, yet she clings to the hope that, once Exile ends and Trixia is restored, Ezr will forgive her.