- Two weeks after he fled the palace in the night, Alek wakes up in a barn. So that's a bit of a comedown.
- Alek tries to sneak up on Volger, who is listening to Morse code over the wireless.
- Nobody sneaks up on Volger, though.
- Volger tells Alek that the army is preparing for war—or so he thinks, due to increased traffic on the wireless.
- Alek hopes this means everyone has forgotten about him. Volger says not a chance: Alek is super duper important, and no one would forget about wanting him dead. Comforting guy, that Volger.
- And then Volger stops spilling information and goes back to being Count Mysterious.
- Because they're both a bit annoyed at each other, Volger suggests a fencing lesson—nothing says relaxation quite like pointing a sharp object at someone who is getting on your nerves, after all.
- During the fencing lesson, Volger and Alek discuss international politics, outlining the way the great powers of Europe will ally with each other in the coming war.
- They conclude by figuring out that the Darwinist powers will fight the Clanker powers.
- Alek feels that the war is in some way his fault because no one wanted his parents' marriage or his birth, and now his parents' deaths are leading to war.
- Volger tells Alek he may still have a chance to influence the war, though of course he's very enigmatic about how.