Chapter Summaries

Anna, Pujina, and Ligo discussed Ligo’s surname and the customs of her homeland, including the hunt in which she earned the bone studs on her brow. Ligo began asking Anna about something she had long been curious about, and Anna questioned whether she truly wanted to hear it.

• Ligo asked Anna whether her ordinary name and surname had special meanings, and Anna explained that Sokolova meant “falcon.”
• Anna connected Ligo’s surname to the Sol Wasteland, but Ligo said she had chosen it when her information was re-entered and that it was not a memorial.
• Anna described the Sol Wasteland’s coming-of-age hunt, and Ligo explained that she had earned three brow studs after surviving the hunt and killing a Great Golden Cat.
• Ligo revealed that Chelated Beings had attacked the Sol Wasteland during the hunt and said the Great Golden Cat had in some way saved her.
• Ligo asked Anna about a question she had long wanted to ask, and Anna warned her to consider whether she really wanted to hear the answer.

Anna and Ligo discussed killing Silei to protect Hesta from the consequences of what happened aboard the ship, while Anna reflected on how close Ligo and Chiba were to abandoning their ideals. Elsewhere, Hesta and Silei questioned wounded men who had ambushed them and used Jacqueline as bait, but the men refused to reveal Fionn’s location.

• Ligo asked Anna when the ship would dock and warned that Silei would report everything that happened, leaving Jane at risk of investigation.
• Anna suggested killing Silei before they left the ship, and Ligo agreed that Silei’s knowledge could expose Hesta to a long prison sentence.
• Anna said the ship might dock sooner than expected, and Ligo left after their conversation.
• Anna told Pujina that the line between cynical indignation and cynical detachment was fine, then added that she was talking about Chiba as well as Ligo.
• On the Fifth Deck, Hesta questioned five wounded men about Fionn while Silei demanded to know why they had ambushed them and used Jacqueline as bait.
• One man refused to cooperate and told Silei to kill him so his name could be written among his brothers.

Hesta searched Fionn’s room for clues after confronting the captives, but their reaction and final words made her reconsider Robogriye’s theory. She found an old photograph of Fionn with a friend and realized she had misunderstood the method of “mystification.”

• Hesta kicked and restrained the two captives while Silei watched them.
• One captive thanked Hesta for helping them understand who they were fighting, and Hesta cut his mouth with a keycard before entering the suite.
• Hesta searched Fionn’s room in a fury and found an old photograph of him with a friend, showing a golden pendant and metal watch.
• Hesta replayed her choices and remembered the captive’s words about realizing their enemy.
• Hesta recalled her conversation with Ligo about fate and realized she had misunderstood Robogriye’s method of “mystification.”

Hesta realized that publishing the cruise guide had made the passengers understand the rules governing their danger, while Silei watched a dying man warn her to leave before an explosion tore through the suite. Silei survived the blast after someone pulled her clear, but Jane lay motionless nearby.

• Hesta realized the passengers had been driven toward despair by the disorder surrounding the deaths, and that the cruise guide had given them rules they could understand and resist.
• Silei ordered a blood-mouthed man to keep his hands on his head and asked him to think about where Fionn had gone.
• The man began coughing blood and told Silei he was not afraid to die again, then warned her to leave.
• As the man and the other passengers fell still, Silei rushed toward the glass door and called out to Jane.
• A blast of scorching light erupted through the suite, and someone pulled Silei aside before the explosion threw her outside.
• Silei landed hard and saw Jane lying face-down and motionless nearby.

Hesta woke after dreaming of rising from an icy lake and running across a snowy landscape, then learned that Silei remained unconscious in the Special Care Ward. Though injured herself, Hesta insisted on going to see Silei and told Ligo she could not afford to lose the game.

• As Silei lost consciousness, she saw crew members gather around Hesta and heard someone call her name.
• Hesta dreamed she saw a red-haired, blue-eyed figure above an icy lake who looked like herself, then broke through the ice and ran across a snowfield.
• Hesta woke to find Ligo beside her, and Ligo admitted she regretted trusting Anna and her assurances of safety.
• Hesta learned that Silei had not woken and was in a Special Care Ward on the Second Deck, and she asked Ligo to help her go there.
• Ligo protested that Hesta and Silei were risking themselves over a game, but Hesta said she felt close to losing and could not lose.

Ligo confined Hesta to the sickbay after she admitted she was pursuing answers from Anna without knowing exactly what questions she wanted answered. At midnight, Chiba confronted passengers gathered beneath the smoking cabin, questioned how they had escaped the explosion, and refused to take part in selecting a new Arbiter.

• Ligo demanded that Hesta explain why she and Silei were risking their lives, and Hesta said she believed following her assigned steps would lead to answers from Anna.
• Ligo questioned what answers Hesta wanted, but Hesta said she could not yet explain her feelings and believed searching for the question might also be searching for the answer.
• Ligo locked the sickbay door and told Hesta to rest instead of leaving that night.
• Passengers gathered on the bow deck after the fifth-floor cabin exploded and burned, though its flames went out without any visible rescue effort or damage to the Sixth Deck.
• Chiba questioned the passengers about how they had known to leave their rooms and warned them after they described seeing Hesta and Silei fall from above.
• A passenger proposed a new Arbiter selection, but Chiba refused to get involved and left.

Chiba confronted Anna about her dangerous games and warned that AHgAs would soon search for the missing Ascending Bright. The next morning, Agnes and Meyers left the baggage room and encountered Bernhard arguing over muffins in the teahouse.

• Chiba told Anna that Hesta and Silei must not suffer serious injuries, and Anna agreed to be more careful.
• Chiba warned Anna that AHgAs would begin search and rescue operations for the Ascending Bright within days.
• Anna invited Chiba to breakfast, and Chiba chose Bishop Restaurant over the Hard Rock Bar.
• Agnes and Meyers used the wheelchair lift to climb the stairs and reach the open-air deck.
• Agnes and Meyers entered the teahouse and found Bernhard demanding more muffins from an employee.
• Bernhard explained that he had come downstairs because it was quieter than the crowded upstairs restaurant.

Agnes and Meyers challenged Bernhard about his behavior toward the crew, but he revealed that the people overseeing the ship’s safety were being replaced. At Grace Theater, Fionn tried to force Tasia to help search Hesta’s room, and she refused as he prepared to take further action.

• Agnes and Meyers persuaded the crew member to let Bernhard choose his own breakfast, then Agnes told him to treat the crew more politely.
• Bernhard spilled water while arguing, apologized for the accident, and admitted he had not slept well.
• Agnes asked about Mr. Gopelin, and Bernhard said the people in charge had changed and might change again that day.
• Bernhard told Agnes and Meyers to visit Bishop Restaurant to find out who was in charge, but said he would not go with them.
• At Grace Theater, Fionn pressed Tasia to help search Hesta’s room, but Tasia refused.
• Fionn stood up and began to act after Tasia rejected his demand.

Fionn and Philip coerced Tasia into accepting the Arbiter’s role and going to Hesta’s quarters, claiming the Quicksilver Needles were behind the murders aboard the ship. Tasia agreed after Philip stabbed himself and threatened to do it again.

• Fionn told Philip something that left him remorseful, and Philip urged Tasia to follow Fionn’s orders.
• Fionn accused the Quicksilver Needles of conspiring in the murders aboard the ship, while Tasia defended Hesta and Silei.
• Fionn insisted Tasia was the only person who could become Arbiter and ordered her to go to Hesta’s quarters.
• Fionn grabbed Tasia by the hair and demanded she accept her responsibility, but she said he might as well kill her.
• Philip stabbed himself in the thigh and begged Tasia to go to Hesta’s room, so Tasia agreed when he raised the dagger again.

Hesta explained to Ligo how Silei’s stubbornness had led their group to follow her, then connected that dynamic to Rob Green’s plan for a second Eden. She left Ligo with the argument that the game mattered because Rob Green intended to build a society led by an uncompromising minority, while still including ordinary people.

• Hesta refused to eat unless Ligo let her see Silei, but Ligo kept her confined and said Silei was doing well.
• Hesta argued that she could go with Ligo to visit Silei, but Ligo insisted there was no need to take another risk.
• Hesta recalled how Silei’s resolve had drawn her and Ligo into the group’s efforts to save people.
• Hesta cited a theory that a committed minority could lead an entire group to accept its preferences.
• Hesta concluded that Rob Green had filled the Ascending Bright with moderate, kind passengers who could hold his group together and yield to its stubborn members, helping him build a second Eden.

Hesta explained to Ligo that the ship’s apparent game concealed real people and said she wanted to escape before the Ascending Bright docked. Meanwhile, Tasia searched Hesta’s suite under Fionn’s pressure and found two folders of Hesta’s medical records.

• Hesta questioned what victory meant and pointed out that killing the Rob Greens’ followers aboard the ship would not eliminate their wider movement.
• Hesta told Ligo that she wanted to get out.
• Fionn sent Tasia into Hesta’s suite to search for documents and devices, pressuring her to take responsibility for the group’s lives.
• Tasia entered Hesta’s empty, damaged room and searched its drawers while the two men prepared to open the safe.
• Tasia found a leather case containing two folders of Hesta’s medical records and test reports.

Hesta and Ligo searched the deserted Special Care Ward for Silei while Tasia and two men inventoried Hesta’s belongings. After an elevator trap made one man vanish, Tasia discovered Hesta’s suitcase was missing; Hesta then visited the injured Silei, who wondered how Jacqueline and Fionn had obtained powerful explosives.

• Hesta and Ligo found Silei’s room number at the unattended nurses’ station and continued through the eerie ward.
• Tasia noticed a discrepancy in Robogriye’s diary dates but could not examine it further before the seized items were sent to Fionn.
• Tasia asked the two men to take her to the medical room, but an elevator trap nearly cut her in half and the man inside disappeared when the doors reopened.
• Tasia gathered the scattered belongings and realized Hesta’s suitcase had vanished along with the missing man.
• Hesta visited Silei, apologized for not bringing Ligo when Jacqueline came for her, and heard Silei question whether Jacqueline had escaped with Fionn and where they had gotten their explosives.

Hesta, Silei, and Ligo discussed the ship’s dead passengers and planned to suppress the rebellion and increase the number of passengers. Tasia found the same black leather case again, while Hesta and Ligo faced Silei’s attending doctors at the hospital.

• Hesta and Silei discussed the passengers’ death wishes, their belief in Yarek, and the possibility that the young dead had been shaped by adults; Ligo cautioned against assuming Gustav was good because he was young.
• Hesta said she planned to suppress the rebellion and increase the number of passengers before everyone on the ship died.
• Tasia returned to Hesta’s room with documents and found the black leather case beneath a drawer, containing two dated document bags identical to the box she had found earlier.
• Two doctors entered to examine Silei and reprimanded Hesta and Ligo for visiting together; Silei identified them as her attending doctors and confirmed she had stayed awake during her operation.

Hesta heard Silei’s theory that Fionn may have convinced his followers the voyage was only a trial, and considered whether some could still be saved. Meanwhile, Tasia learned that the voyage was indeed a trial and went to Bishop Restaurant, where she met the Agnes sisters as they waited for Fionn.

• Silei warned Hesta that publicly executing Fionn might turn him into a martyr and suggested he could be spreading the claim that the ship was part of a trial.
• Hesta considered Silei’s plea to distinguish between committed criminals and people like Tasia, then promised to think about it.
• Tasia found a man examining the suitcase and learned from him that the voyage seemed to be a trial and that their group needed to act quickly.
• Tasia arrived at Bishop Restaurant, where soldiers guarded the area and she joined the Agnes sisters, who asked whether Mr. Gobelin would come that morning.

Tasia and the passengers watched Fionn claim the Second Deck was harmless and urge them to stay in Bishop Restaurant. As Hesta announced a new Safety Inspection and offered a choice to leave with her or remain, Tasia revealed that the elevator had swallowed a suitcase and a companion before restoring the suitcase, urging everyone to leave.

• Tasia spoke with Agnes and Meyers about Mr. Gobelin and the unfamiliar people gathered in the hall.
• The passengers watched Fionn’s recording from the Second Deck, where he dismissed its dangers and called for a new adjudicator.
• Hesta arrived, ordered the curtains opened, and announced that a Safety Inspection would begin at 9:20, with the Observation Deck as the temporary shelter.
• Hesta left with Ligo and the man who had distributed Fionn’s footage, while soldiers rushed after her and another man urged them to stay.
• Tasia described how the elevator had swallowed a suitcase and their companion, then returned the suitcase to Hesta’s room, and urged the passengers to leave.

Agnes left the dining hall with Meyers and Tasia after spotting a flaw in Tasia’s account that made it unlikely to be a trial, and they waited on the Seventh Deck for Hesta and Ligo. Meanwhile, Hesta interrogated Helen with sedatives and violence before heading to the Observation Deck with Ligo.

• Agnes ordered Meyers to take her to the Observation Deck, and Meyers returned to bring Tasia along.
• Agnes told Meyers that Tasia’s account resembled a trial but had an obvious flaw, and the three went to the Seventh Deck to wait for Hesta and Ligo.
• Hesta questioned Helen about whether she was convinced and told her to work out what answer Hesta wanted.
• Helen vomited after Ligo untied her, but Hesta struck her across the back of the neck and left her collapsed.
• Ligo pushed Hesta toward the Observation Deck and said he felt like a thug beside a villain.

Ligo explained the rules of fair hunting to Hesta and revealed that Anna had suggested killing Silei. Hesta held the ship’s Safety Inspection, ordered daily inspections and reports about Fionn, and Agnes stayed behind to ask her about the Night Banquet.

• Ligo told Hesta that hunters seeking to sell their catch had to follow strict rules and that Anna had suggested killing Silei.
• Hesta gathered the remaining passengers on the Observation Deck while Bernhard assembled the soldiers.
• Hesta announced that Safety Inspections would continue daily and said the remaining passengers had survived because she assumed they doubted the trial.
• Hesta ordered passengers to report any news about Fionn and told them to find safe places to sleep and inform her where they were staying.
• Agnes asked Meyers to stay while she waited to ask Hesta about the Night Banquet, and Tasia went down with the others.

Pujina’s crew hurried to conceal the aftermath of a killing before Mantel and the other waitresses arrived, and Mantel asked whether Anna Sokolova could join them on their journey to District 15. Anna learned that nine people had died and that she had lost her bet with Ms. Chiba, then evaded Zero’s question about returning a recording.

• Pujina and the restaurant crew cleaned away blood and bodies before Mantel’s shift arrived.
• Mantel asked Pujina whether passengers could travel with them to District 15 and suggested bringing Anna Sokolova.
• Pujina warned Mantel not to tell anyone where the voyage was headed.
• Zero told Anna that nine people had died and that she had lost her bet with Ms. Chiba.
• Zero asked Anna when she would return Ms. Chiba’s recording, and Anna stayed silent.

Anna told Zero to return the recording to the shattered figurehead in the Voyage Museum and said she would decide later when to tell Ms. Chiba. Meanwhile, Hesta recruited soldiers as Risk Passengers to protect ordinary passengers from a conspiracy, and Agnes asked an older Thorn Monk about the Night Banquet invitation she received.

• Anna asked Zero to put the recording back inside the shattered figurehead and said she was fine despite the price she had paid for her choices.
• Agnes questioned Hesta about the Night Banquet, but Hesta told her to ask Tasia and Ligo carried Agnes and Meyers to the elevator.
• Hesta announced that the soldiers’ missions were suspended and asked nine of them to become Risk Passengers in exchange for protection.
• Agnes and Meyers returned to the restaurant, where Agnes showed an older Thorn Monk her invitation and asked about the Night Banquet.
• The Thorn Monk said he had not attended the Night Banquet but had learned a little from the morning meetings.

Pujina comforted Tasia, who said Philip was dying and feared Officer Silei was dead, then discussed her unusual mix of sadness, regret, and excitement with the voice monitoring her consciousness. After reaching the second basement level, Pujina recalled her years aboard the Ascending Bright and remembered Angelique telling her about a code phrase.

• The Thorn Monk asked Agnes whether Tasia was present, and Agnes told him to share what he knew first.
• Pujina found Tasia crying near the infirmary, where Tasia said Philip had lost too much blood and feared Officer Silei had died.
• Pujina comforted Tasia, gave her tissues, and escorted her to the elevator for the Sixth Deck.
• Pujina discussed her feelings and consciousness monitoring with the voice in her mind as she headed to the second basement level.
• Pujina recalled joining the Ascending Bright as an intern, becoming its bartender, and hearing Angelique mention a code phrase before retiring.