Katabasis

Alice’s pentagram scar severely altered her dreams, which layer dreams and reality in horrible new hallucinations. She dreams she’s abducted by Grimes with a horse head, which she stabs with scissors and licks the blood. Peter wakes her. Archimedes has returned. As they eat breakfast, Alice tries to divine Peter’s intentions. While flaky, she never knew him to be malicious, but she convinces herself of his plan. She resolves to pretend everything is fine.

Treacherous steps lead from Desire to Greed. She remembers back to her first year, when Grimes called her to his office for tea. He told her Peter was her competition and she’d have to work twice as hard as him for a portion of his success. Over the next few years, he constantly compared her to Peter. Alice became hyperaware of Peter. One day, Peter came into the lab with a friend and didn’t notice her napping. She overheard them talking about her, and Peter made a joke about Alice being intimate with Grimes. Alice wonders if the rumor spread and stopped her from getting opportunities.

They descend the steps, and Peter tries to guess at the occupations of the Shades passing into Greed. They pass over a bridge made of petrified Shades.