In the morning, Chiaroscuro wakes to find a little bat in his windowsill, and a battle raging in part of the city. As the mongoose goes out to investigate, he runs into a Naga named Delilah, who has come out with the morning to sunbathe. When Chiaroscuro returns, he is brought to the dining hall for breakfast … and to meet another Naga, this one a spellcaster named Balthazar. The mongoose overcomes his fears, as Balthazar finishes a ritual that allows him to temporarily speak in the Kitellian tongue. As it is revealed that Chiaroscuro is an Exile, and not one of the Ancients awakened from slumber, the mongoose is turned over to Inquisitor Jacobus, who makes arrangements to bear him off to Rephidim.