After leaving Gila’s salvage yard, Switch confronts Hadrian for hiding his palatine identity. Switch is hurt that Hadrian, whom he considers a friend, never told him the truth, and Hadrian struggles to explain without revealing the dangerous circumstances of his flight from Delos.

Hadrian tries to minimize the revelation by saying it did not seem important, but Switch sees the secrecy as proof that Hadrian has been pretending to be one of the plebeians. Switch accuses Hadrian of slumming and suggests that Ghen’s suspicions about him were right.

The argument escalates when Hadrian explains that he used his ring because his noble status might let him obtain the ship. Switch resents the privilege implied in that plan, while Hadrian insists he was trying to steal from his father and the Mataro interests because he has no better choice.

Hadrian then lashes out cruelly, comparing his own suffering on Emesh to Switch’s implied abuse by palatines and saying Switch does not have a monopoly on suffering. Hadrian immediately recognizes that he has said something unforgivable and that the cruelty came from himself, not merely from his aristocratic upbringing.

Switch punches Hadrian in the jaw in front of onlookers. Hadrian does not retaliate, apologizes, and admits he deserved the blow, but still refuses to tell Switch why his past is too dangerous to discuss. Switch rejects the apology, walks away, and Hadrian collapses against a bakery wall, left alone like the beggar he once was.