After Harrow returns safely to the Mithraeum, Harrow reflects that God calls Harrow “not a normal Lyctor,” while the other Lyctors use less flattering terms. Harrow takes limited comfort in being abnormal within a spectrum, because Ianthe the First is also failing to function as a conventional Lyctor.

Harrow finds Ianthe in the ornate former quarters of an older Lyctor, wearing ill-fitting old clothes and exposing the right arm that Cytherea cut off and someone reattached. The arm looks increasingly swollen and unused because Ianthe has stopped relying on it, and Ianthe is in a bitter mood after another poor training result. Ianthe warns that Harrow may not survive long enough to face Number Seven because assassination remains an immediate threat.

Harrow closes the door because Ianthe’s quarters are heavily warded and because Ianthe privately calls Harrow “Nonagesimus,” preserving a trace of Harrow’s old identity. The two discuss Ianthe’s combat failures: Harrow argues that Ianthe’s problem is psychological, while Ianthe insists that the instinctive influence of Naberius Tern’s absorbed soul, “Babs,” disrupts the reattached arm whenever Ianthe flinches.

Ianthe reveals that Augustine has also dismissed the problem as psychological and cruelly suggested that Ianthe is nearly as useless as Harrow. Harrow recommends practical solutions, including cutting off the arm, having it regrow, or asking Mercy or God to reconstruct it. Ianthe rejects these options because Lyctors cannot perfectly regrow lost limbs, because she distrusts others’ work, and because she believes Teacher would make her do it herself.

When Ianthe realizes Harrow’s bone-and-body expertise might allow Harrow to rebuild the arm, Ianthe proposes that Harrow do it. Harrow refuses, saying Harrow is not yet perfect with flesh and is unwilling to attempt something so intimate and exacting. Harrow leaves thinking that Ianthe is vain, irritating, brilliant, dangerous, and strange, yet still a fellow Lyctor and uneasy ally who has not killed Harrow yet.