As Gideon, Harrow, Palamedes, and the others return toward Dulcinea’s room, Silas Octakiseron and Colum Asht intercept them. Silas reports that the Third House have desecrated Abigail Pent’s body, the servants have all been destroyed, and the Second and Seventh are needed. Harrow replies that the Second, the Seventh, and Teacher are dead or incapacitated, leaving the remaining Houses dangerously short-handed.

Silas explains that Colum saw the Third leaving the morgue that morning, but Ianthe and Coronabeth have since vanished, their rooms are empty, and the facility hatch is locked. Because the situation has become too serious for rivalry, the Eighth compel an uneasy alliance and lead the others back through Canaan House to the kitchen morgue.

On the way, Harrow privately tells Gideon that Teacher likely did not kill the others because Teacher was terrified of Canaan House and the facility. Harrow suspects Teacher, being a construct himself, may not have been able to descend the ladder at all. Harrow warns Gideon to strike immediately with her sword if anything goes wrong.

In the morgue, Abigail’s body has been pulled from its niche and cut open in the right side of the abdomen with Naberius Tern’s triple-knife. Palamedes examines the wound and realizes that something metal had been hidden inside Abigail long enough for the flesh to seal around it. Palamedes concludes that the missing object was a key, likely concealed after Abigail and Magnus completed a facility challenge on the night of the dinner, though he cannot yet tell whether Abigail hid it herself or whether her killer did.

Silas admits that he has collected multiple keys not to use them, but to prevent the other Houses from opening the doors, because Silas despises the trials as a desecration of a holy place. Palamedes condemns Silas’s obstruction but realizes that the stolen key must open the one room someone has tried hardest to keep hidden. Harrow and Palamedes infer that the missing Third necromancers know the same thing and may already be there.

Before leaving, Harrow checks the burned remains previously found in the furnace. Colum identifies half of the remains as belonging to the Seventh cavalier, Protesilaus, while Silas says the other half belongs to someone else. Palamedes insists that the living must take precedence if they are to survive, but the chapter ends by undercutting that assumption.