After Nona kisses Gideon’s corpse awake, Pyrrha immediately tenses with her gun and warns Palamedes to back up. The awakened corpse recognizes Pyrrha, jokes crudely with her, and unnerves the group by moving with unnatural ease. Pyrrha realizes that Palamedes has not simply revived Gideon as expected; John has remade Gideon into something altered and incomplete.

The corpse rejects Crown’s question about whether she is alive and identifies herself as Prince Kiriona Gaia the First: heir to the Emperor Divine, First Lieutenant of the Cohort, and one of the Tower Princes. She admits she is still dead, though she will answer to Gideon. She also reveals that she has been conscious the whole time, only pretending to be inert while Ianthe kept her shut away to prevent her from disrupting Ianthe’s mission.

Palamedes questions why Gideon is present and why she is not opposing them on the Emperor’s behalf. Gideon explains that she joined Ianthe’s shuttle because it was more interesting than remaining at home, then says she wants to go to the Ninth House because she has unfinished business there. Nona immediately detects that Gideon is lying about something, though Nona cannot identify exactly where the lie sits.

Crown argues that the group needs Gideon because they need her blood. Gideon refuses to be treated as a sample and challenges them to try taking it. Camilla attempts to draw blood from Gideon’s arm, but the needle snaps against her skin. Gideon explains that John has made her bones denser than titanium plex and her skin bulletproof, calling herself the Emperor’s construct and the perfected sword hand of the Nine Houses.

Gideon further reveals that even if they could draw her blood, it would burn to ash outside her body unless properly preserved with thalergy. Palamedes warns that Blood of Eden will restrain Gideon once they know she is walking, but Gideon insists no one will lock her up. Nona, watching Gideon’s movements closely, perceives beneath the bravado that Gideon is profoundly sad.