Emperor Salvador Corrino and Prince Roderick attend Dr. Zhoma’s interrogation, though Salvador dislikes witnessing torture. Truth technician Reeg Lemonis reports that Zhoma has confessed to financial fraud and to murdering her predecessor, Dr. Elo Bando, whom Zhoma claims had embezzled Imperial funds and falsified Salvador’s treatments.

After further torture, Zhoma reveals the larger conspiracy: the Sisterhood sent Zhoma to sterilize Salvador because its breeding records judged Salvador’s bloodline unfit to continue, while Roderick’s line should inherit the Imperial throne. Zhoma adds that Salvador’s submission to the Butlerians made Zhoma decide death was better than sterilization, and Zhoma openly says Roderick would be the superior ruler.

When Salvador and Roderick return to the Palace, Sister Dorotea arrives from Rossak with two Sisters and Princess Anna. Dorotea explains that the Sisterhood has been trying to recreate the transformation that made Raquella a Reverend Mother, and that Anna impulsively stole and drank the dangerous drug. Anna survived the coma but awakened only partly transformed, confused, disoriented, and haunted by intrusive ancestral voices.

Roderick is furious that the Sisterhood failed to protect Anna, while Salvador threatens to destroy the Rossak school. Lady Orenna arrives and comforts Anna, who says the voices hurt her like needles in her brain. Orenna takes Anna under her care, giving the damaged Princess a brief sense of safety at home.

Dorotea then turns Salvador’s anger toward the faction Dorotea calls corrupt within the Sisterhood. Dorotea claims that some Reverend Mothers are loyal to the Imperium and the Butlerian cause, while the Sisterhood’s breeding program is maintained by forbidden computers hidden in the restricted caves of Rossak. Salvador refuses to involve Manford Torondo and decides to send an Imperial military squad to deal with the illegal machines and the Sisterhood’s corruption.