Hadrian tutors Dorian Mataro in Jaddian while sketching the young lord as an antique myrmidon. Dorian admires the drawing, and Anaïs joins them, asking for a portrait of her own. Their conversation turns from Hadrian’s gladiatorial past to the Colosso, where Anaïs casually suggests he could return safely before realizing many of the lower-ranked fighters are Hadrian’s friends and apologizing.

Anaïs mentions that Doctor Valka Onderra is leaving soon, and Hadrian realizes Valka will likely return to Calagah when the tides expose the ruins. The lordlings discuss Valka with prejudice and curiosity: Anaïs repeats Chantry suspicions that Valka is a machine-tainted heretic, while Dorian is more intrigued. Hadrian defends Valka and reveals admiration for her travels and scholarship, while also reminding Anaïs that he too is an offworlder.

After Dorian asks to keep the portrait, Hadrian reluctantly tears the page from his journal. Anaïs then proposes that Hadrian teach the siblings sword fighting. Hadrian cannot easily refuse the count’s children, so the scene shifts outside, where he trains Dorian and Anaïs with foam weapons under the wary eyes of Mataro guards. Dorian complains about the heat, Anaïs attacks eagerly, and Hadrian easily disarms and corrects them, concluding that their previous training has been poor.

Gilliam Vas arrives to collect the young nobles for Lord Balian and reacts sharply on finding Hadrian standing over the defeated Dorian. After the siblings leave, Gilliam confronts Hadrian, accusing him of being too familiar with the palatine children and hinting that others at court resent Hadrian’s position. Hadrian answers politely that the count ordered him to attend them and that he has no improper intentions.

Gilliam then shifts to Hadrian’s earlier break-in to the coliseum gaol to see the Cielcin prisoner Makisomn, calling it possible espionage and consortation, a grievous sin. Hadrian admits he wanted to meet and speak with the alien out of curiosity, which confirms Gilliam’s suspicion that Hadrian is a heretic or dangerously sympathetic to xenobites. Gilliam threatens that once the count loses interest, Hadrian may face Chantry punishment, but Hadrian answers only by warning him not to assume he knows everything.