Harrowhark does not appear for midday meal, leaving Gideon alone in the dining room with unfamiliar food and only skeleton servants for company. Gideon notices the skeletons are expertly made and suspects Teacher raised them, which would undercut the Ninth House’s pride in perfect skeletal reconstruction.

As Gideon prepares to leave, a hostile white-clad necromancer and his older companion enter. The necromancer looks at Gideon with open hatred and orders his companion to deal with the “shadow cultist.” Gideon hopes for a fight, but the older man only asks her to leave because his uncle cannot eat around her kind, deepening Gideon’s sense of isolation.

Angry and disappointed, Gideon wanders through Canaan House and ends up in a bleak terraced garden. There she finds Dulcinea Septimus alone, weak, sweating, and reclining under an awning. Dulcinea asks Gideon to adjust her chair, then cheerfully explains that she assumes Gideon’s silence is a Ninth penance.

Dulcinea draws Gideon into a one-sided conversation, speaking about her childhood fantasy of joining the Ninth to die beautifully, the unsettling abandoned nature of Canaan House, ghosts, and the different necromantic philosophies of the Seventh and Ninth Houses. Dulcinea asks Gideon to remove her sunglasses, studies Gideon’s unusual golden eyes, and makes Gideon feel both exposed and fascinated.

Dulcinea then asks Gideon to draw her sword. Gideon obeys and instinctively falls into a stance shaped by training with a heavier two-handed weapon rather than a rapier. Dulcinea immediately notices and asks whether Gideon is used to a heavier sword, nearly exposing Gideon’s false presentation as Harrow’s proper cavalier.

Before Gideon can panic or confess, Protesilaus arrives and tells Dulcinea that something is shut. His interruption lets Gideon retreat quickly. Dulcinea calls after Gideon that she hopes they talk again soon, but Gideon flees, aware that she has revealed too much without saying a word.