Six months before the Emperor’s murder, Harrowhark trains with Mercymorn on a harsh, freezing planetoid. Wearing a hazard suit and using an exoskeleton to wield her heavy, bone-sheathed sword, Harrowhark begins the process of killing the planet. Mercymorn pushes her to hurry, both out of impatience and because the environment will soon become dangerously cold.

Harrowhark drives thanergy into the planet’s core and carefully triggers a cascade through its thin, scattered life. The planet’s soul begins to die in concentric rings, and Harrowhark enters the River to confront the newly formed planetary ghost. She recalls that moving into the River has never come naturally to Harrowhark, despite God’s teachings and Ianthe’s claims that Ianthe can do it easily.

In the River, Harrowhark approaches the newborn Minor Beast: a grotesque, half-organic and half-mineral soul. When the creature flees, Harrowhark dives after it, fashions bone harpoons from her own perceived body, and anchors herself to the monster. Harrowhark creates skeletal constructs, climbs onto the thrashing ghost, and uses her sword and javelin to carve into it until she finds and destroys its weak brain.

Harrowhark returns to the physical world nearly hypothermic while Mercymorn records her time. The Body is present in Harrowhark’s vision, as always when Harrowhark kills, silently welcoming her back and interfering with Harrowhark’s peripheral sight. Mercymorn notes that the dead planetoid is one fewer resource for Number Seven, but still judges Harrowhark’s performance inadequate despite her improved time.

On the shuttle back to the Mithraeum, Harrowhark broods over the real problem: whenever Harrowhark’s soul enters the River, her necromancy in her physical body collapses. Ordinary Lyctors are protected by the dead energy and combat instincts of their cavaliers, which keep their bodies functional and dangerous while their souls are away. Harrowhark’s body cannot do this, proving to everyone that Harrowhark is not a normal Lyctor.