Emperor Salvador Corrino begins the chapter in physical and emotional distress, suffering another severe headache and worrying that no physician can replace the late Dr. Elo Bando. A Suk doctor uses a treatment that eases the pain temporarily, allowing Salvador to attend a formal banquet, though Salvador remains anxious, suspicious, and resentful of his own weakness.

At dinner, Salvador observes the tensions surrounding his family and court. Roderick calmly supports Salvador by tasting his food and steering the conversation, while Salvador envies Roderick's steadier nature and happy marriage to Haditha. Salvador also reflects on his own unhappy marriage to Empress Tabrina, his difficult stepmother Orenna, and his unstable half-sister Anna, whose romance with chef Hirondo Nef Salvador has recently ended.

The banquet conversation turns to the rise of post-Jihad schools that cultivate human abilities, including the Sisterhood, Suk doctors, Mentats, Swordmasters, and other institutions. Sister Dorotea explains that Rossak-trained women serve noble families and that her own specialty is detecting truth from falsehood. When Anna publicly accuses Salvador of denying her love because he lacks it himself, Dorotea defends the Emperor's authority, and Roderick has Orenna escort Anna from the hall.

The awkward banquet is suddenly disrupted when Norma Cenva's tank materializes inside the hall. Norma reveals that she no longer needs a ship because she can fold space with her mind, a display that awes and frightens the court. Salvador respectfully asks why she has come, recognizing her importance to humanity's victory over the thinking machines.

Norma warns that the Imperium depends on transportation and commerce, and that abandoned machine vessels could strengthen civilization if reused. She condemns the Butlerian mobs for destroying those ships and orders Salvador to stop them, warning that otherwise the Imperium will fragment and die. Before Salvador can respond, Norma folds space again and vanishes, leaving him to mask his alarm with a forced joke about Navigators.