Vis spends the day feigning illness, his sleeplessness and sluggish sparring helping sell the ruse. He declines Emissa’s offer to stay with him and publicly sees Ulciscor and Lanistia off, maintaining appearances while worrying they may never see him again. Back in his rooms, he prepares tablets and returns to the tunnels, confirming the senators are meeting in the Lesser Hall.

Through the listening slot, Vis endures hours of small talk before official business begins under Dimidius Quiscil. Tertius Ciserius presents a list of suspected traitors and those vulnerable to coercion. Vis painstakingly records names and memorizes compromising details—corruption, vices, illicit affairs—while the committee debates surveillance, coercion, and punishment. He later memorizes and erases three non-actionable names as potential leverage he can keep from Relucia’s eyes.

When requisitions are raised, the discussion turns to the Anguis attack at the Festival of Jovan. Despite losses across their pyramids, Quiscil calmly frames the devastation as useful cover and insists their involvement remains undetectable. Objections from Magnus Tertius Nasmius and others are brushed aside as Quiscil, invoking the Princeps, pushes a new plan: provide the Anguis with weapons, Will designs, and a trireme—the Navisalus—which Ciserius will ensure “goes missing” on a dangerous voyage to Tensia, with no crew the fleet wishes to keep.

Shaken, Vis recognizes the stakes. The Military’s collusion with the Anguis violates Birthright and puts him in mortal danger if discovered. He realizes this is what Relucia needed him to confirm, likely to verify Military are honoring their bargain, but he sees no safe way to warn anyone without exposing himself, and his evidence is incomplete.

After the meeting disperses, Vis leaves the tunnel, mulling Relucia’s earlier mention of the Navisalus and the implications of the Princeps’s directive. At his corridor’s final bend, movement startles him; Fadrique rises from the shadows outside Vis’s door. The chapter ends with Vis confronted, his secret listening likely compromised.