In a storm-lashed dawn, students prepare for the Festival of the Ancestors. Callidus arrives without luggage and reveals his father has forbidden him from attending, framing the isolation as necessary to maintain their protective deception. Vis anticipates meeting Relucia at the Necropolis, complicating any covert debrief with Ulciscor.

Principalis Veridius descends to the mess, checks on Vis’s healed hand, and declares Vis’s stable-duty penance complete after the trip. Veridius outlines strict security for the journey: Praeceptor Scitus will escort the students, boarding will require issued passes, the Transvect will run unpredictable loops, and the Necropolis is well guarded, minimizing Anguis risk. He asks Vis to pour an offering for Caeror and warns that grief can harden into harmful belief, implying some truths at home may be self-serving. Vis departs for the platform under these assurances.

On the Transvect, Aequa pointedly sits with Vis; Emissa and Indol join, insisting that outside Academy walls they are equals. Iro passes with a scowl. Conversation turns to the naumachia and to Dultatis’s treatment of Vis. Aequa discloses that Iro lost his nine-year-old sister at the naumachia and that his family resents Vis’s naming as Catenicus, explaining Iro’s animosity. Indol suggests appealing to Scitus, but Emissa and Aequa note that Dultatis’s authority stands unless rule-breaking is proven and supported by the whole class. Aequa remains supportive yet observant as they trade Praeceptor stories, with Aequa praising Scitus.

The Transvect enters Agerus: lantern-lit graves blanket the plains, Eternal Fires blaze, and mausoleum-studded mountains loom. As they descend, the platform appears unusually crowded. Scitus distributes return tiles and keeps Vis close, asking their group to follow him.

On the platform, murmurs swell—“It’s him”—and attention fixes on Vis. A large man pushes past Iro, prompting Scitus to tense. The man growls “Catenicus” and clasps Vis’s arm in the Catenan embrace, publicly marking Vis and signaling the heightened scrutiny and potential complications awaiting him at the Necropolis.