Four ascensions remain
Angelina talks to Damien about getting a transfer, but won't say why. She isn't willing to get anyone in trouble, she says. Damien is a bit frosty about doing things without knowing the reason. He thinks she is working well with this team, and there aren't so many shooters who would. He refuses to consider reassigning her until after Orchid completes her ritual, which might take a month. Angelina is irritated by the delay but still won't say what the reason is.
Alexandra finds Gavin and questions him about Thielo - Gavin is forced to admit that Thielo is in fact a clockwork and that they've been keeping it from Lexa. She then asks Gavin if she's a clockwork, and after being dumbfounded he reminds her that medical treatments that work on people work on her (for instance Matthew Goldfarb's epideromancy). She leaves to go look for Thielo after talking briefly with Angelina.
Thielo is helping Orchid complete the magic circle, burying the skulls of some of the first keepers of the Vatican's secret library around the circle. After he's helped for a while, Alexandra comes and finds him and they talk a bit about the obvious thing for them to talk about. It all seems to work out in that Alexandra isn't bothered that Thielo is a clockwork and Thielo is trying not to flip out that she knows. After this, Thielo stops doing a lot of the things to pretend to be human - like breathing and blinking.
Orchid talks to Gavin briefly and tells him that whatever happens in the ritual she has chosen it and he just has to accept that. More on that later. Also about this time, everyone realizes that mysterious people at the school were a special branch of the Secret Service. Damien admits to using the local cliomancer to plant this idea in the general consciousness.
Bashra Krovalek begins playing solitaire in the living room of the Ranch using an apparently complete Conclave Tarot. The rules for his game are quite complicated. Thielo takes a stab at understanding them, but only begins to grasp the simpler rules. Bashra implies that the game will show him when the next ascension occurs and allow them to time Orchid's ritual so that it will occur just before or after, which is considered the most effective time. As far as anyone can tell, he plays day and night without a break.
About a week passes, during which Bernard arrives and has a few sessions with members of SILVER. Angelina spends a lot of time riding and shooting while she waits. Esteban spends a lot of time with the traumatized Tina, and also goes out every night in a fury of partying. Eventually he does go in to the ranch and encounters Angelina. Nothing is said until Angelina gets up and leaves the dinner table abruptly. Alexandra follows her to find out what is going on, while the others question Esteban a bit, since it seems that he's the source of Angelina's troubles. Angelina, once she out and admits it, seems concerned that she's making Esteban ineffective. At one point Alexandra has Thielo look at Esteban to make sure he hasn't gotten a major charge off Angelina, but it's obvious to Thielo's sight that he hasn't.
Bashra announces that the time has come and the ritual should be the following day. Various people seek out Orchid and find her packing her things neatly into boxes. Though she won't come right out and say it, she clearly doesn't expect to survive the ritual. But she doesn't expect that she would be in the next universe in any case - she knows too much. This is a bit depressing, but Orchid lets the group take her out for one last night on the town. She's a good dancer, and reveals that while she was putting herself through the University of Chicago grad school she worked as a stripper. Eventually, the Inquisition read some of her papers (that no journal would publish) and hired her.
Early the following morning everyone convenes, including Alex Abel with his bodyguard Eponymous, Matthew Goldfarb, and a sketch artist named Peter. SILVER's job during the ritual is to make sure that nothing enters the inner circle and interferes with Orchid. Everyone else is observing, essentially, except for Eponymous whose job is to protect Alex. Angelina briefly collars Esteban to ask him if the ring event was an accident or not. He says it was an accident, but he's fine, in fact, he's "on" this week. The conversation is more infuriating than informative.
Orchid begins chanting and waving a decorated staff. This goes on for perhaps two hours, and everyone is getting bored (except for Thielo who can see auras rising out of the magic circle like a grounded aurora borealis) when Bashra coughs loudly, getting their attention. Three figures form at the edges of the circle.
The figures are called Cruel Ones (although they don't learn that until later, the narrator will jump a bit). The first is Creativity (again, they work this out later) who appears first as a primitive painting on a rock side, then as Michaelangelo's David, then later as a tattoo. The second is Decay, which appears as a humanoid pile of rotting animals and plants. The third is Connections, that appears as a man-shaped mass of wires, strings, and ribbons. They begin to advance on Orchid.
SILVER leaps into action and tries shooting, hitting, and flaming the apparitions. Thielo is able to knock Creativity back a bit, but not for long, and no one else even has that level of success. Finally Decay envelops Esteban as he tries to deal with it, and he is overcome by feelings of despair at the entropy of the world, remembering the people who have died and the wasted moments of his life. Just after that, Alexandra, struggling with Connections, is pulled in, and has a few moments where she feels what everyone else feels as she connects with them. Of note are Bashra's thoughts - "The Cruel Ones. I hope we survive to complete the rituals". Seeing that this has stopped the Cruel Ones in their tracks while they envelop his teammates, Gavin throws himself at Creativity. It flows over him as a tattoo and he experiences a million novel thoughts at once.
Each person delays the Cruel One for only a minute or two, but while this is happening a picture is forming in the air around Orchid, showing a bearded man working at a computer. Thielo blocks Connections next, Esteban Creativity, and Angelina Decay. Damien also blocks Connections before the ritual is complete, and the narrator may be forgetting one or two more.
As the ritual completes, Orchid collapses to the ground. The Cruel Ones rush forward, no longer bothered by the defenders, and envelop Orchid. A moment later, they are gone, and Orchid has turned to sand which is blowing away into the desert. Angelina tries to cover it, but to no avail, and it blows away.
Everyone returns to the Ranch. Before they do, Angelina says a few words as a short eulogy for Orchid, mentioning her passion for knowledge. Bashra leaves a single perfect rose behind, its stem cut short to place in a lapel.