Hadrian is brought to Liliana Kephalos-Marlowe in her holography studio at the summer palace. She has just returned and is already working, which deepens Hadrian’s resentment at how little attention either parent gives their children. Once the servant leaves, Liliana shuts down the holograms and demands that Hadrian explain what he thinks he is doing.

Liliana throws Hadrian an attaché case containing The King with Ten Thousand Eyes and Gibson’s letter. Hadrian realizes Liliana intercepted the escape materials. She explains that Gibson had arranged help through one of Lord Albans’s scholiasts and a merchanter vessel bound for Nov Senber on Teukros, but the scheme collapsed when unauthorized transmissions were flagged. Crucially, Alistair does not know about the letter, though Alistair suspects Hadrian was involved and believes Gibson’s punishment has ended the matter.

Hadrian asks about Gibson’s fate, and Liliana says Gibson has been placed on cargo manifests under multiple ships, some leaving the system, making him difficult to trace without monitored and costly telegraph waves. She can only say Gibson is alive. Hadrian is devastated, but Liliana unexpectedly embraces him, giving Hadrian the first physical affection he can remember receiving from either parent.

Liliana says she wants to help Hadrian. After assuring Hadrian that the cameras in the room are off, she listens while Hadrian tells her everything: his fear and hatred of the Chantry, his wish to become a scholiast, his hope to join the Expeditionary Corps, Alistair striking him, and Gibson’s public punishment. Liliana responds not with condemnation but by repeating that she wants to help.

When Hadrian insists it is too late because he is due to leave for Vesperad in four days, Liliana reveals that her absence was spent in Euclid arranging another escape. She has found a Free Trader, vouched for by Director Feng, to take Hadrian offworld. Hadrian worries about the danger and about what Alistair will do to Liliana, but she invokes her mother’s power as Duchess of Delos and says Alistair never consulted her about sending Hadrian to Vesperad. She asks whether becoming a scholiast with the Corps is truly what Hadrian wants, and Hadrian says yes.