After the failed attempt to question Abigail Pent and Magnus Quinn's ghosts, the group spends nearly an hour hauling the bodies upstairs, placing them in a freezer room, and gathering the Houses in the dining hall. Colum the Eighth remains almost unresponsive after Silas's siphoning and has to be carried by Corona and Gideon; Teacher is horrified by Colum's condition and has him treated with burning herbs while the shaken survivors drink tea.

Captain Judith Deuteros insists that the Cohort and the Fifth House must be informed, but Teacher refuses, citing Canaan House's sacred rule against off-planet communication. Teacher says he does not believe Abigail and Magnus died by accident, yet he resists calling it murder because he believes the danger comes from monsters or forces within the First House facility, not from the living people in the room.

Suspicion turns toward who knew about the lower facility and who possessed keys. Harrow confirms the Ninth locked the hatch after using it; Palamedes and Camilla admit the Sixth has a key; Dulcinea says the Seventh has one; Silas says Colum holds the Eighth's key and reveals he told Abigail about the facility after the party. Silas implies the Ninth may have benefited from the deaths, provoking Harrow, while Dulcinea apologizes for Protesilaus having struck Silas.

Coronabeth urges the Houses to make a pact of trust before fear destroys them. Isaac, grieving and furious, argues that if a monster or haunting killed Abigail and Magnus, it must be hunted; Jeannemary immediately supports him. Palamedes rejects assumptions and proposes a scientific investigation of the bodies before anyone decides whether the cause was murder, accident, ghosts, or monsters.

Teacher then reveals one last key issue: Ianthe also possesses a key, apparently taken from Naberius without telling either him or Corona. The meeting breaks apart, with Palamedes, Camilla, the Second House, and others going to examine the bodies. Gideon watches Silas calmly summon Colum back to himself, then comforts a grieving Jeannemary, who insists Abigail would never have risked a fall and should have been able to face ghosts. Colum finally coughs back toward awareness, and Harrow returns from speaking with Palamedes impatient to act, telling Gideon they have another door to open immediately.