Hadrian enters Uvanari’s dark, foul cell after weeks of Chantry torture. Uvanari is strapped to an adjustable cross, badly mutilated but still conscious. Hadrian gives Uvanari a painkilling injection, presenting himself as the “good prefect,” while inwardly recognizing that his silence has made him complicit in the Chantry’s cruelty.

As the drug takes effect, Uvanari asks why Hadrian serves the humans who torture it. Hadrian says he is only there because he knows the Cielcin language, but Uvanari argues that anyone who works for others is not truly free. Hadrian tries to follow his mission by offering medical treatment in exchange for information about Uvanari’s leader, or aeta.

Uvanari refuses at first, saying that surrender was a mistake and that all it has left is death. When Hadrian asks why Uvanari surrendered, Uvanari says it did so because Hadrian had claimed the war belonged to neither of them and that both sides inherited it. This reveals that Hadrian’s earlier appeal had briefly given Uvanari hope.

Hadrian says he wants to return Uvanari to the Cielcin, but Uvanari warns that its master will not value the captives. Uvanari reveals that the Cielcin aboard the ship are kasamnte, effectively nothing to that master, and that not even Tanaran matters to him. Hadrian notices Uvanari’s use of a masculine pronoun for the master, then learns that Tanaran is baetan and might one day become aeta, though the exact meaning remains uncertain.

Uvanari then asks Hadrian to kill it, calling such a death ndaktu, a formal mercy. Hadrian refuses, still hoping to find a way to contact the Cielcin without betraying or endangering them. Uvanari refuses to reveal its people’s location and calls humans vermin, but as Hadrian leaves, Uvanari gives one crucial name: Aranata Otiolo, its master.

Hadrian presses for more, but Uvanari says it does not know where the Cielcin fleet is because they keep moving and have no fixed way home. Hadrian admits he cannot make the Chantry stop without cooperation, though he knows he likely could not stop them regardless. The chapter ends with Uvanari asking whether, if it tells the humans what they want, Hadrian will kill it.