Umeko, flanked by her friends and her generals, sees about making plans for the upcoming actions against Beshret's forces , only to be interrupted as two of her friends feel the Temple of Being call out in fear and distress. With Lilac racing from the room and Anisa requesting a break to deal with the awakening of her crystal pendant, the meeting is temporarily adjourned. Up on deck, the others find Lilac in a nearly incoherent state as Anisa attempts to reach out through her pendant and question the massive underground entity as to what is doing it harm. After much confusion, Lilac' lets slip that she knows what the Temple of Being wants because she can feel it – because it is inside of her. Further urging gets the young woman to finally relate a dark truth: that she had killed Dragonfly, and the price she paid the Temple of Being was to carry its child. Shocked, the others press Lilac further until she has said all she can manage to say. Umeko urges Lilac to remember she is not alone, and that she should have trusted her friends more in the first place, rather than have let her fear rule her.