Anna Corrino survives her failed transformation attempt but remains in a coma for days, creating a crisis for the Sisterhood. Reverend Mother Raquella fears Imperial retaliation because Emperor Salvador had entrusted Anna to Rossak, but Raquella delays informing him while hoping Anna may recover. Valya stays by Anna’s bedside, shaken by her role in failing to prevent Anna’s reckless act.

Anna suddenly wakes, but her recovery is not normal. Anna sits upright, gasps, and begins speaking in overlapping, nonsensical voices that resemble the flood of Other Memories inside a Reverend Mother. Raquella realizes Anna may have been damaged like the failed Sisterhood volunteers and privately wonders whether death might have been kinder.

Over the next week, Karee Marques and other Sorceresses monitor Anna. Karee reports that Anna’s voices have mostly faded, but Anna now recites random knowledge and detailed facts with savant-like precision. Sister Esther-Cano adds that Anna has somehow become an expert in foldspace travel, including ship construction, Holtzman mathematics, navigation chambers, and possibly classified Venport Holdings information.

Raquella, Valya, Dorotea, Karee, and Esther-Cano discuss how to handle the danger. Anna remains fixated on building a ship, becoming a Navigator, and escaping Rossak. Valya notes Anna’s earlier strange abilities with burrowers and fogwood, suggesting Anna may always have had an unusual mental defense. Dorotea warns that Salvador will react harshly, and Raquella decides to take Anna to Salusa Secundus herself, tell the truth, and accept blame to save the Sisterhood.

Dorotea overrules Raquella, arguing that her history with the Corrinos makes her the better envoy. Raquella recognizes Dorotea’s ambition and growing power among the new Reverend Mothers, but accepts that Dorotea may be the Sisterhood’s best hope. Dorotea prepares to take Anna and two Reverend Mothers to the Imperial court.

At the shuttle, Dorotea confronts Valya and demands to know whether Valya will support her when she returns. Dorotea reveals that her Other Memories include some of Raquella’s memories, giving Dorotea knowledge of the Sisterhood’s hidden computers in the caves. Dorotea declares that she will tell the Butlerians about the forbidden machines unless Valya becomes her ally, framing the conflict as obedience to the anti-machine commandment above loyalty to the Sisterhood.