Hadrian has been living for ten nights in a storm drain on the edge of Emesh’s White District, using an old drinking cooler as both seat and storage chest. He has turned to theft for food, eating a stolen smoked eel while looking out over Belows and the city’s canals, sore from Emesh’s gravity and reduced to rainwater, scavenged supplies, and a few saved coins.

The White District’s wealth and authority loom above Hadrian’s poverty: its patricians, plutocrats, guild figures, gladiators, and Chantry buildings are separated from beggars like Hadrian by law and social contempt. While Hadrian rests at sunset, two urban prefects spot him in the off-limits drain and order him down.

Hadrian panics, knocks his cooler over the ledge, and dives into the canal after it because it contains everything Hadrian owns besides his clothes and signet ring. After recovering the cooler, Hadrian tries to talk his way past the prefects, claiming Hadrian was only enjoying the view, but the prefects demand identification papers.

Because Hadrian has no papers and fears being taken in, Hadrian looks for an escape route. When one prefect grabs Hadrian, Hadrian strikes the prefect with the cooler, accidentally scattering his money, food scraps, and magazines across the pavement, then runs.

A stunner bolt grazes Hadrian’s leg, dropping Hadrian before Hadrian can escape. The prefects beat and search Hadrian, finding only a few steel bits and a coupon, but not Hadrian’s hidden signet ring. Deciding Hadrian is too poor to be worth formally booking, the prefects leave Hadrian bruised on the pavement with a warning not to return where Hadrian does not belong.