Hadrian remains confined in the Mataro palace under the false name Hadrian Gibson. Anaïs and Dorian believe he is a minor merchanter’s son from Teukros, while their tutor makes him practice Jaddian with them. House guards recover Hadrian’s belongings from the Colosso, leaving Hadrian to wonder what Switch and the other myrmidons think of his disappearance.

After an engagement with Anaïs, Anaïs catches up with Hadrian and invites him to escort her to a major harbor boat race. As Anaïs describes the gathering of local elites and Dorian’s coming Ephebeia, Hadrian notes the palace’s use of Umandh xenobite slaves as ostentatious servants. The scene reinforces Hadrian’s gilded captivity among palatine customs and Mataro power.

Hadrian and Anaïs then hear a sharp foreign voice berating workers for mishandling Umandh laborers repairing lights after palace brownouts. A douleter strikes one Umandh with a shock-stick, but the tattooed doctor Valka Onderra stops him and takes charge of the Umandh communications device. Anaïs introduces Valka to Hadrian, and Hadrian is immediately overwhelmed by Valka’s presence, beauty, confidence, and difference from Imperial society.

Valka identifies herself as a xenologist and explains that her main work concerns ruins on Emesh’s southern continent, Anshar. Anaïs explains that Anshar contains Tolbaran, the old capital from before Mataro rule, while Valka reveals that the Calagah ruins are far older and not human. When Anaïs mentions Hadrian’s time as a myrmidon, Valka’s warmth vanishes; Valka condemns blood sport and asks whether Hadrian enjoyed killing slaves for his masters. Hadrian explains that he fought with slaves against gladiators, but Valka remains skeptical.

Trying to recover Valka’s regard, Hadrian addresses Valka in Tavrosi languages and surprises her, since few Imperials learn even one. Their conversation shifts to the Umandh: Valka explains that the Umandh are not individuals in the human sense, and that their droning is less a language than a form of networking or harmonizing. Hadrian’s curiosity and scholarly instincts awaken as he grasps the biological and xenological implications.

Hadrian asks about Calagah, and Valka says the ruins predate human settlement on Emesh by thousands of years. Hadrian compares them to the Arch-Builders of Ozymandias, impressing Valka with his knowledge, and Valka offers to show him holographs if he is genuinely interested. She undercuts the invitation with another jab about killing people, leaves with the Umandh workers, and Hadrian remains speechless, realizing the meeting has struck him profoundly.