Bassai takes a break from his work at the Ministry to visit Sephira as the Higher Institute of Sorcery and the Supernatural. The two snakes show their obvious love for each other before Bassai gets around to the question he wanted to ask the Life Mage. He inquires about Isstan's health, and finds that the Mind Mage has died several months ago. Shocked, and outraged at the Temple's skillless treatment of the whole affair, he asks that Sephira take him to the Hall of Shed Bodies, where he can at least pay his respects.
At the hall, the two Nagas encounter an eerie Rokuga mortician, named Qing. The pale, six armed snake offers to show them Isstan's resting place. During their slither, Bassai quickly realizes that Qing and Sephira share a past. A very bad past, considering the Life Mage's reactions to the Witch Doctor. Isstan's crypt has the final surprise – it has been ordered open by Rephidim Temple, and countersigned by the Minister of External Affairs. An inquisitor is proposing to recreate Isstan's death in an attempt to determine who murdered him. Everyone is offended by this idea of puppeting the dead, and invite themselves to this ritual. Finally, they get their chance to pay their respects to the dead Mind Mage; each sheds a scale to place with his body, to symbolize their presence with him on his journey to oblivion, then swallow a roll made with Isstan's blood, to experience the full flavour of the Mage's life. Qing goes with the hearse, leaving Sephira and Bassai to find their way out of the hall on their own.