On Kolhar, another Navigator-candidate dies inside a sealed tank, and Cioba supervises the removal of the corpse. Vetted VenHold workers drain the valuable melange gas, extract the partially transformed body, and prepare it for shipment to Josef Venport’s Denali research facility, where failed candidates are studied for what their altered brains can teach VenHold scientists.

Cioba reflects that the Navigator program has high costs but also measurable success: hundreds of candidates have attempted the transformation, with many failures but relatively few deaths. She compares this to the Sisters of Rossak, whose attempts to trigger Reverend Mother abilities through dangerous drug-induced ordeals remain far less successful.

Cioba visits Norma Cenva’s isolated tank and asks whether the Navigator transformation resembles the Sisterhood’s efforts to enhance the mind through crisis and survival. Norma answers that major human advancement comes through extreme stress, a principle that echoes Norma’s own transformation after torture and Raquella’s awakening at the edge of death.

When Cioba mentions that her daughters are on Rossak, Norma abruptly decides it would be pleasant to see them. Norma folds space, transporting her tank and Cioba from Kolhar to an observation balcony on Rossak, where Cioba recognizes the cliff city, jungle valleys, and volcanoes of her former home.

The Sisters gather in surprise, and Cioba announces that Norma may advise them on Reverend Mother transformations by drawing parallels to the Navigator process. Raquella and Karee Marques arrive, followed by Cioba’s daughters, Sabine and Candys, whom Cioba embraces proudly despite Raquella’s disapproval of encouraging family ties among acolytes.

Cioba argues that Sabine and Candys must understand their lineage because they are Venport heirs and descendants of Sorceresses. Norma undercuts the pride in ancestry with a pointed reminder from her own painful past, observing that sometimes not knowing one’s mother can be an advantage.