Fenrir and Gudmund carry Lyria through fog to a low-flying warship with umbilicals to the sea. In the hangar, chained Grays and wounded Golds stand under guard while Core Obsidians lounge. At a signal, Ascomanni kick the captives’ chains over the edge, drowning Grays and then Golds to “chum” leviathans as the Obsidians drink. Lyria is hauled through ranks of collared slave crew to a stateroom and falls asleep.

Lyria wakes to find Volga watching a holocube message from Sevro. Sevro recounts Ragnar’s transformation from butcher to protector after Darrow’s trust, condemns Fá’s enslavement campaign, and claims Atlas au Raa manipulates the Volk through Volga’s grandfather. He urges Volga to return to Mars, lead the Volk as queen, defend the Republic, and promises support—warning they will oppose her if she follows Atlas and Fá.

Volga greets Lyria tenderly, notes Lyria’s freed mind, and admits her “hunt” is going poorly. When Lyria says she came to bring her home, Volga declares she is already home with her people. She denies Atlas’s influence, asserting her grandfather broke his chains and would kill Atlas. Volga lays out a vision: the Garter for food, the Deep for technology, Ganymede as homeland—freedom won by strength. Lyria invokes Ephraim’s murder; Volga calls the heart-eating a sign of respect and says she spared Fá to build a Volk kingdom after his bloodguard threatened reprisal.

The argument deepens. Lyria condemns sacking and slavery and recalls their shared past, but Volga indicts the Republic’s failures and claims Darrow only wants her grandfather’s axe. Lyria cites the Daughters and Atlas’s orchestration; Volga rejects it and argues history proves empires are built by violence, and the Volk deserve their own war. She refuses to “play the Reaper’s game” and tells Lyria to go back to Mars.

Lyria refuses to leave without Volga. Enraged, Volga belittles Lyria as a Gamma rat bred to inform, calls her Darrow’s tool, and declares her duty to deliver Lyria to her king. To intimidate, Volga dumps the severed heads of Gudmund and Fenrir into Lyria’s lap. Though afraid, Lyria remains unyielding.