- After Dr. Gitney and Octavian make Cassiopeia comfortable on her bed, Dr. Gitney chews Octavian out for sitting down at the dance earlier.
- It doesn't matter that Octavian's sick—he's still a servant.
- Then Dr. Gitney tells Octavian to leave, so he does, feeling sick and low.
- He ends up in the yard; a group of Young Men and a girl are playing around and ask him to fetch some blindfolds so they can continue their game.
- Octavian isn't sure what to do (he's a little muddled from his illness), but he finds himself going away from the group and toward the edge of the garden, where he last spoke with Bono.
- There, he finds the rock Bono told him to pray to, so Octavian drops down and starts praying with the rock.
- He even picks it up and holds it against his body, like Bono told him to.
- And—lo and behold—there's something hidden under the rock, in the dirt: keys to the house.
- Octavian thinks is Bono's last gift to Octavian, some way out to freedom.
- But then he figures out that the keys don't really do much good, since it's not like he has anywhere to run to—there isn't a safe place anywhere.
- Plus it's not like the house is ever locked anyway; Mr. Gitney and the scholars don't even really notice if a slave disappears for a day.
- But Octavian keeps the keys anyway—he's going to try to put them to use one way or another—and meanwhile, he returns to the house and searches for those blindfolds the Young Men wanted.