At Nicodemus' Shiny Shoppe, Pouncer comes home from the Temple Scouts, to the homecoming of some pestering from her little brother, Enos. Zoltan sends the two cubs off to play, and receives Jezebel, who has been out on errands. She shares with Zoltan that she has managed to acquire for him ownership of a very large collection of Savanites … with the intent of getting them off of Rephidim and to the City of Hands. She expresses worry about the developments in the Nagai Empire, and that she feels she must go to the City. During the course of explanation of her scheme to get there, she makes mention of Cambios Herbir, a black Vartan and former crew member of the Rotten Eye and then the Lalee-Papu.

Zoltan is evidently disturbed. He reveals that this Herbir must be his own father … and one of a shady background, quite unlike what Zoltan ever imagined. The Vartan is visibly shaken (as an understatement), and Jezebel tries to console him. At last, Zoltan pledges that he will do his best to atone for the sins of his father, and that he will try to head into Faraon's Dome to retrieve Jezebel's other sister, Moon-Brow, before Jezebel launches her plan to escape with the slaves from Rephidim.