Gideon wakes weak, hungry, and alone after Harrow’s siphoning in the Avulsion trial. Harrow has left a chain of notes ordering Gideon not to leave, saying Harrow has taken the keys to examine the new laboratory and has asked Palamedes to check on Gideon. Gideon washes, eats the bread Harrow left, finds a flimsy note still in Gideon’s pocket, and is unsettled by the realization that it has been there all along.

Camilla arrives to examine Gideon on Palamedes’s behalf. Camilla finds Gideon unexpectedly healthy despite Palamedes’s prediction that Gideon should be comatose or dead. When Gideon asks why Palamedes did not attempt the Avulsion challenge, Camilla explains that Palamedes calculated the risk as potentially causing Camilla permanent brain damage, and contrasts that with the Eighth House’s practice of treating cavaliers as necromantic batteries.

Camilla brings Gideon to the dining hall, where Coronabeth is arguing with Teacher about facility keys. Coronabeth wants access equal to Ianthe’s and asks for the Fifth House key, but Teacher says Naberius owns the Third’s key and Magnus’s key is missing or held aside. Palamedes offers to escort Coronabeth, but Coronabeth instead tries to bribe him with Third House favors; Palamedes refuses and reveals that each key is unique and only one or two remain unclaimed.

The revelation changes the political stakes at Canaan House. Coronabeth concludes that the challenge must be communal, because no one can solve it with only scattered pieces, but Teacher says there is no law beyond the single rule already given. When Judith asks what prevents theft, intimidation, blackmail, deception, or force, Teacher answers that nothing does. Coronabeth leaves to warn Ianthe, the Second House leaves in silence, and Teacher reveals that Magnus asked for a facility key on the night he died while Jeannemary refused hers.

After Gideon eats, Palamedes takes Gideon and Camilla through the cold storage area toward the morgue. They encounter Judith and Marta, who have searched unsuccessfully again; Judith asks Palamedes to work with her for stability, but he refuses, saying his conscience will not let him help anyone pursue what they have all begun. Tension rises when Marta grips her rapier and Camilla prepares to draw, but Judith ends the confrontation and leaves.

In the morgue, Palamedes examines Magnus’s body and possessions, using psychometry on Magnus’s wedding ring and cutting pieces from Magnus’s pockets to trace contact with the missing key ring. Palamedes explains that Magnus’s facility key was taken and predicts that, with few keys left, alliances and predatory targeting will intensify; he also warns Gideon that Silas has made Dulcinea a target because she has two keys. Before Gideon leaves, Palamedes reveals that the Fifth’s injuries were not just from a fall and contained tiny bone fragments from multiple sources, but an unseen young eavesdropper flees before he can explain further.