The Stulti warps back into normal space, but the threatening moon appears to be following the Excavate Company. They think that it may be linked to Alice, to whom they have given the code name "Ore". Maya suggests that someone's memories are also contained within the Orichalt that they retrieved from the planet. Amanza questions Ido about his past, but he only knows of being an escaped criminal from an exile ship, where he had been held for about twenty years...