After killing her thirteenth planet, Harrow dreams of dining with the Body instead of enduring the usual Mithraeum dinners with God, Mercy, Augustine, and Ianthe. In the dream, Harrow and the Body wear Ninth House skull paint and speak comfortably, until the Body abruptly tells Harrow to wake up.

Harrow wakes in Anastasia's old room and arms herself with the bone-sheathed sword, leaving behind the rapier the Emperor gave her. In the dim corridor, Harrow sees Cytherea's corpse standing ahead of her, still marked by the petals from earlier, and moving in an unnatural, stiff, dragging gait.

The corpse advances toward Harrow with horrible persistence, tripping over a skeletal arm and then crawling forward without ever taking its eyes off Harrow. Although Harrow knows herself to be a powerful Lyctor, the sight terrifies Harrow, and Harrow flees back into her room.

Harrow locks and barricades the door, then makes a hurried blood ward with blood from her own mouth. The ward should repel foreign magic, but Cytherea's corpse still scrapes at the door and tries the handle, stopped only by the chair jammed beneath it.

Harrow spends the rest of the night on the floor in terror, then returns mechanically to bed when the room's artificial morning light comes on. Later, Harrow goes to Ianthe and reports that Septimus is walking, but Ianthe, recognizing Harrow means Cytherea, refuses to help and only tells Harrow to ask for Ianthe's arm back.