In another impossible scene, Harrowhark is a Cohort lieutenant and Black Anchorite leaving a briefing room after training. Still uncomfortable with space exposure and Cohort customs, Harrowhark is stopped by two Fourth House lieutenants, Isaac Tettares and Jeannemary Chatur, who salute Harrowhark as fellow officers with combat credentials.

Jeannemary bluntly jokes about the Cohort having forgotten how Ninth House black friars work, while Isaac tries to be diplomatic. Isaac explains that, as House heirs entering the Cohort together, Isaac, Jeannemary, and Harrowhark should keep close. Isaac offers friendship because the Cohort resents heirs joining active service and will likely haze them.

Harrowhark warns Isaac and Jeannemary that the Cohort opposed Harrowhark's inclusion, but Jeannemary dismisses the concern and describes the ways heirs are kept away from danger unless they push to be treated like ordinary troops. Despite Harrowhark's reluctance, the Fourth pair pull Harrowhark along to the cafeteria, talking constantly while Harrowhark feels exposed as the only officer marked with Ninth House black insignia.

At the cafeteria, Jeannemary enthusiastically explains Cohort coffee enhanced with bio-adaptive reuptake inhibitors, or BARI, and says this deck has a talented coffee adept. When Harrowhark reaches the counter, the server guesses that Harrowhark takes coffee black. Their fingers brush, and Harrowhark is suddenly transfixed by the server's face, red hair, smile, and eyes.

Before the encounter can fully register, Abigail appears beside Harrowhark and says, "Absolutely not." Abigail's interruption cuts across the fantasy, implying that this Cohort training scene, like the previous false scenes, is another constructed or forbidden memory Abigail refuses to let continue.