Galand, posing as "Ashes", receives an assignment. This time, he meets up with his partner, a Skreek named Flicker, in the Sewers. They head off to the house of a Jupani, where they make short order of him, despite the wolf apparently being tipped off to the intrusion. A cub witnesses the crime, and Ashes advocates "silencing" the cub, though Flicker declines – He indicates that the cub wasn't part of the contract, and that a member of the Assassins' Guild never "interprets" the contract creatively.

Back in a hiding place, the rat and cat bind their wounds and share some spirits. Unbeknownst to Flicker, Ashes has a second assignment: He was paid to kill Flicker by slipping a poison pill into his drink, after the hit on the Jupani. Flicker goes down, but oddly he evidences no ill will toward Ashes, and tells him where to find his stash. "I always take care of my partners," the rat says before expiring.

In the rat's hideaway, Ashes finds some weapons, poisons … and some paperwork that might reveal more of the Guild's operations. Returning back to the Dome, he wonders more about just which is the real him – Ashes or Ashur.