Kyr feels alone now, as she never felt on Gaea. She goes to Hfa’s Research Outpost and finds it guarded by drones that look like bees. She tests them by throwing a rock; one investigates while the others close the gap. Kyr destroys a bee, and the others come to investigate. She abandons the dead bee and runs around its fellows to enter the outpost. There is a tunnel inside made of pearly material. Kyr climbs down.

She keeps climbing until she is exhausted, but she doesn’t reach the floor. She tries climbing sideways and finds a floor. Once she’s in a room, a tiger attacks Kyr and pins her down. Mags then appears and kills the tiger. Ally told him that Kyr was leaving. Mags tries to convince Kyr to come back to Raingold. She says that she can’t because of honor. They argue about Ursa, and Mags criticizes the culture of Gaea, which sets up everyone to compete with one another. Mags asks Kyr what she is planning on doing.

Avi appears and echoes the question. He is upset that Mags killed his tiger, which he has been using for protection while hacking into the Wisdom’s network. Avi leads them into a cavern. It is filled with flowers and bee drones, as well as a waterfall. Mags collapses from stomach wounds that he sustained in the fight with the tiger. Kyr examines Mags and demands that Avi get her some alcohol to clean the wounds. As she does, Mags passes out.

Mags’s wounds start to heal with his accelerated-healing genetic alteration. Kyr drinks some of the alcohol. Avi had hoped that Kyr would stay with Ursa and stop fighting. Kyr calls Ursa a traitor. Avi expresses admiration for Kyr’s determination. Then, he admits that he found Mags and didn’t tell Kyr about it for a while because he needed her. Avi plans to take control of the Wisdom node. Humans were trying to create the Wisdom technology with the agoge.

Instead of calling for emergency services to help Mags, which will land Avi and Kyr in prison, they decide to wait five days for the prince to arrive. Avi thinks that he can win the war by taking over the Wisdom node, but he needs Kyr to run scenarios, similar to those in the agoge. Kyr decides to help Avi and trust that Mags will heal without a hospital. Avi has some of the bee drones create a bower around Mags’s unconscious body.

Kyr and Avi walk deeper into the tunnels until they reach a shadow engine. Avi tries something on a control panel, fails, and swears. He demands that Kyr give him her knife, and he threatens Yiso with it. The Wisdom turns off the engine and says, “Your actions are unwise” (187). Kyr sees how Avi has injured Yiso and is concerned. Avi says that everyone is scared of Kyr.

Avi regains control over the engine and turns it on at a lower setting. He transforms the pool beneath it into the doors of the agoge. Kyr asks for an objective for the scenario. Avi says that it’s designed by the Wisdom, not him, but guesses that there’s a door and a key.

Inside the scenario, Kyr feels like she is late and runs. Then, she stops and says she’s never late but has trouble remembering details about her life. A door appears, but it’s locked. Yiso appears and introduces themself; Kyr introduces herself. Yiso says that they always wanted to meet a human. The warning about being late was for Yiso; they are supposed to be training. Kyr and Yiso walk past storerooms that hold clothing, furniture, and cosmetics. Yiso says that they’re in the Halls of the Wise.

When they reach the training room, Yiso picks up a stick and does a dance with it. Kyr decides that Yiso is doing the dance incorrectly and shows them a better way to complete a movement. Yiso says that Kyr is stressful. They discuss how all of Yiso’s actions are significant, and Kyr wonders how Yiso’s body works. They find a second stick and do the dance together. After a while, Kyr asks about a door and a key. Yiso says that they aren’t scared of Kyr. They are a Prince of the Wisdom, which means that they serve the “all-powerful god machine” (198), and are a test subject. Yiso summons a door and a key. Kyr uses them to leave.

Kyr returns to the pool in the control room. Avi says that they only have four days left. He knew that Yiso is a prince; that’s why he wouldn’t sell Yiso. Avi figured it out because Yiso’s ship has a small shadow engine, which is unusual for ships of its size and function. Yiso is a young majo zi, a very rare and secretive species. The four known majo zi are very old and have no home world. Avi suggests that Kyr take a break.

She goes to the bower, but it is empty. Mags is conscious and lying in some nearby bushes. Kyr relays that Avi thinks they can win the war. Neither Mags nor Kyr had thought of winning before. She is upset that Avi hurt Yiso. Mags is surprised that Kyr likes Yiso. Kyr says that she also likes Mags, Lisabel, and Cleo, but not Ursa. Mags thinks that Ursa is worried about them.

Mags manages to walk to the control room with Kyr’s help. One of his cuts reopens. Kyr cleans it, and Mags passes out again. Kyr sleeps next to Mags. When she wakes, she checks on Yiso, who is still sleeping, and cleans them up as best as she can. Avi claims that he didn’t have a choice; he had to hurt Yiso to work on the Wisdom, but he feels guilty about it. He envies Kyr’s conviction. They now have three days left. Avi describes the Wisdom and agoge as “subrealities, miniaturized universes” (206). In the Doomsday scenario, billions of people die over and over again in their subuniverse.

Kyr goes back into the Halls of the Wise, and Yiso is there. Yiso wonders what the Wisdom is working on. It took a long time for the Wisdom to decide to destroy Earth. Prince Leru told Yiso about it. Yiso says that Leru is their uncle, in human terms. Kyr says that she, too, has an uncle. Yiso wants to meet a human; they think Kyr is not real. Kyr admits that she’s never killed anyone but plans on killing Leru.

Yiso tells Kyr a story about how the Wisdom works. People felt like they, and the universe, were cursed. So, they built a machine that could calculate the best actions and put it in charge. The Wisdom ensures that the worst possibilities don’t come into being. However, Yiso doesn’t see how destroying Earth was the lesser of all evils. Kyr says that Yiso ran away and met humans in the real world; they aren’t just in the Wisdom. Yiso argues that they are the Wisdom; they then summon a door and push Kyr through it.

Back in the control room, Kyr doesn’t see Avi or Mags. She checks on Yiso, who wakes up, mumbles something incomprehensible, and falls back to sleep. She finds Avi and Mags kissing on some steps in a garden. Avi says that Mags should find someone else. Kyr says hello, surprising them. Mags falls off his step, and Avi jumps up. Kyr thinks about the lies that Gaea told them, specifically that there were no other humans, so women had to have many children to meet population targets. She is furious about her assignment to Nursery and finally admits to herself that Jole raped Ursa and that Ally is their son. Mags sees that she’s upset and tries to hug her, but she pushes him away.

They return to the control room. Avi has the bee drones make Mags a bed, and Mags immediately falls asleep. Kyr demands that Avi make a bed for Yiso, and he does. Avi and Kyr talk about Gaea feeding them lies. However, Gaea didn’t lie about the destruction of the Earth, and Avi wants the enemy to fear them. Avi thinks it’s strange that their little group of rejects became friends, and Kyr is shocked to be called his friend.

Avi says that he’ll have control of the Wisdom in six hours. However, the prince is arriving two days early. Mags will have to go into the scenario, and Kyr will have to protect Avi while he finishes hacking into the system.

As Kyr hides in the garden, Prince Leru comes in with six human bodyguards but orders them to stay behind. Leru summons a stick, and some bees follow them as they walk around hitting plants to spread seeds. Leru speaks to Kyr and says that she must not be planning on killing them because she would have done so already. Leru asks to speak face-to-face, and Kyr emerges from the plants. They realize that she is human, a teenager, and part of Gaea Station. Kyr is surprised that Leru isn’t scared of her.

Leru says that they, and the Wisdom, are not humanity’s enemy. The destruction of Earth was a sacrifice of billions of lives to save trillions of lives. The majoda are not trying to rule humans. They want humans to join their loose federation. Kyr still believes that the majo are the enemy and attacks with her knife. Leru blocks it with their stick. As Kyr continues to attack, Leru avoids being hit and parries but doesn’t attack. Kyr recognizes the stick from Yiso’s stick dance but realizes that in comparison to Leru, Yiso was terrible at using it.

Kyr trips and falls into a plant that grabs her ankles and wrists. She frees herself and worries about Leru using other plants to trap her. Leru says that she is unwise to attack like this. Kyr swears at them and attacks again. This time, Leru uses dimensional trapping to fling Kyr back. Then, the bees descend on her and block her path. By the time she cuts through a group of them, Leru has disappeared.

Kyr runs to the control chamber. The shadow engine starts up and distorts space to make it appear that Kyr isn’t moving. When she arrives in the chamber, it is a forest surrounded by space. The pool is still there. The Wisdom tells her that her actions are unwise. Avi exclaims that he’s got control and pulls Mags out of the scenario and into the pool. The Wisdom stops talking. Leru is impressed. Avi complains that Leru isn’t dead. Kyr tries to attack Leru, but they teleport next to Avi and look at his controls. Then, they see Yiso and say that Avi is brutal but brilliant.

Mags and Kyr attack Leru together. Kyr gets the stick and breaks it. Leru teleports Kyr, and she draws on her jump-hook experience to navigate. Mags gets Leru in a stranglehold and kills them by snapping their neck. Leru’s bodyguards enter the chamber. Kyr kills a bodyguard. Avi uses the Wisdom to make the other five guards explode and turn into a fine red mist. He laughs and says he’s going to finish the job. Yiso wakes up.

Yiso is upset that Avi hurt them; they thought Kyr was the violent one. Then, Yiso sees Leru’s corpse and moans. Avi uses the technology to puppet Leru’s corpse and tries to get Yiso to react using the Wisdom. Yiso cries but can’t stop Avi. They are locked out of the system and beg Avi to stop. Kyr goes to Yiso and pushes the corpse away. It collapses. She tells Avi to finish the job. He brings up a star map of many different worlds holding 20 trillion beings from 17 species. Yiso corrects Avi, saying that there are 19 species.

Avi says he’s going to keep only 16 majo worlds and destroy the rest because the majo destroyed Earth. Kyr questions whether mass genocide is winning. Avi thinks that Gaea’s dreadnoughts should be in control, and he is willing to let Jole get what he wants. He argues that Kyr won’t be sent to Nursery. Kyr realizes that Chrysothemis will be the target for retaliation and that Jole will reclaim his son there. Yiso begs Avi to reconsider and kill them instead, as Leru’s death makes Yiso the new Prince of the Wisdom. Mags tries to object but can’t.

Kyr destroys a bee and then punches Avi. Avi starts the planet-killing sequence. Kyr threatens him and tells him to stop it. She’s too late; the specks of light around the room that are planets disappear. Yiso cries. Mags takes Avi’s gun and says that he can’t stand up to Avi, that Gaea will come to Chrysothemis first, and that there is no point. Mags shoots himself in the head. Kyr drops to her knees beside him. She feels guilty for not realizing how depressed he was on Gaea and puts his head in her lap.

Kyr tells Avi that he’s responsible, and Avi says that Mags’s death isn’t the worst thing he’s responsible for today. He argues that his actions were justified by the destruction of Earth. Kyr snaps Avi’s neck and regrets that she couldn’t do it in time to save the worlds. Kyr closes Mags’s and Avi’s eyes and sits between them. She thinks about other things she could have done differently to prevent this tragedy and starts crying.

Yiso finds Avi’s device and turns on a broadcast from Ari Shah about the destruction of planets. Then, Yiso turns it off and asks if Kyr will kill them now. Kyr asks what the point of that would be. Yiso makes gestures over the pool and realizes that they’re locked out of the system. Yiso also realizes that they met Kyr in the Halls of the Wise; for them, it happened months ago—a time slip. Kyr asks about this.

Kyr asks if the Wisdom can change the past. Yiso says it could, but it’s rarely been used that way. Leru said that the Wisdom made majo “to be its eyes” and see different universes (242). If another universe were the best outcome, the Wisdom could pull everyone into it. It didn’t choose the best outcome this time because Avi was controlling it. Yiso realizes that if they go back in time a few moments, they could save everyone. Kyr gets into the pool.

Yiso isn’t sure how to use the controls. They haven’t been taught yet because they are young. Yiso tells Kyr that she needs to talk to the Wisdom. She looks up at the engine and asks if it is listening. It brings her into something it calls “Neutral ground” (244). Kyr doesn’t like it talking in her head, so it takes the form of Leru.

The Wisdom says it doesn’t make decisions. Avi decided to kill the worlds; the Wisdom merely allows things to happen as a moral position. It asks where Kyr wants to go in time, and she chooses Doomsday. It is familiar from the agoge. However, she sees a young Jole injured on a platform. He asks her to back him up. Kyr takes his jump hook and considers killing him. However, she now knows that she doesn’t like killing people, so she doesn’t kill him.

Kyr uses the jump hook to teleport to the Wisdom dart carrying the bomb that will destroy Earth. She can’t disable it, so she jumps into shadowspace with it. It goes off there, instead of destroying Earth. Before the end, Kyr tries to think, “I win” (249).