Galand is invited to a banquet thrown by the golden dragon crime lord, Faraon the Friend. On his way to the dinner, he makes a flippant joke about the flight there being as "easy as a Kavi contract", which Skye takes as an insult – not liking to have his work compared to Galand's. Galand tries to make amends, and requests that he have a chance to talk with Skye about this business that's troubling him, after the dinner.

At the banquet table, Galand soon gets to know three merchants seated near him – an Eeee named Skeee, a Skeek in a turban, and a Chronotopian Korv named Nasser. He picks up a little about the news outside of Faraon's Dome … but dinner is interrupted when Faraon butts in on the conversation, taking particular interest in the Eeee. It is soon revealed that the Eeee, apparently in an act taken simply for the thrill of it, poisoned a batch of Yorspice sent to Faraon. Faraon seems at first to be forgiving and even patronizing as he accepts Skeee's promise that it will never happen again.

Then, Faraon suddenly devours the Eeee in a grisly display of his personal power and visciousness. Despite this, Galand somehow manages to eat the rest of his meal.

Afterward, Galand seeks an audience with Skye at his cabin. He clarifies that Skye and Digger are not an "item" – just childhood friends. Skye thinks of Digger as a sort of sister. Galand speaks of his worries about Faraon's plan to assassinate the Astromancer, pin it on his rivals in the Assassins' Guild, then have his "friend", Rhys, in place to take over as the next Captain-Astromancer … thus putting Faraon in a place of real power in Rephidim and – by extension – Sinai.

Galand also speaks about his "split personality" – the identity of "Ashes" that he created as a front for his work in the assassins' guild. Galand fears that a part of himself, deep down inside, actually enjoys killing … and that "Ashes" might take him over … or get him killed.