Vis engages a Will-imbued Sextus on the tower, immediately realizing he is outmatched. The guard’s blows shatter stone and his tactics are brutally direct; he hurls a chunk of rock that smashes into Vis’s injured arm, nearly sending Vis over the edge. Vis avoids being cornered, but the Sextus’s relentless strength leaves him reeling and close to defeat.

Suddenly, the Sextus falters and collapses. Vis catches a glimpse of a dark shape detaching from the base of the man’s skull as the body tumbles into the river below. Emissa stands revealed with a dripping obsidian blade, her eyes black before fading to green. She is shocked the guard meant to kill Vis, and she believes Vis when he explains the Anguis infiltration and that the attacker was an alupi-controlled host. Emissa uses Will and tends to Vis’s injuries.

While cutting away his tunic, Emissa notices something that makes her freeze, then she pulls back. Her eyes turn black again as she demands the Heart of Jovan, insisting she must win the Iudicium and cannot risk separation. Vis, wounded and bewildered, tosses the Heart at her feet; Emissa sobs, torn between impulse and remorse.

In a sudden turn, Emissa hurls her dagger. It buries in Vis’s stomach and drives him backward off the tower. As he falls, the Heart snaps back into his hand, startling Emissa as she looks up in confusion. Vis plummets toward the river, grievously wounded and exhausted, surrendering to the fall as the chapter ends with his fate uncertain.