Back in the novel-within-a-novel, the unnamed lovers continue to meet, first at a cheap café, and later at a series of rundown houses where the man is staying. He is on the run from the police, which partially explains the couple's fear of being seen. At one point, the man even complains that the woman's hair is "too blonde": "[i]t stands out. Blondes are like white mice, you only find them in cages. They wouldn't last long in nature" (106). The woman objects that this isn't "kind," echoing the broader dynamics of their relationship; the man enjoysneedling and shocking his sensitive, upper-classlover (though she herself often banters back at him).

At each meeting, the man continues the story about Sakiel-Norn, elaborating further on the norms surrounding human sacrifice: to prevent the sacrificed girls from dying "unsatisfied, and…join[ing] the band of beautiful nude dead woman," each girl is raped before her death—ostensibly by a god, but really by a courtier (115). The story begins with one of these Temple maidens lying in the "Bed of One Night," waiting for the courtier's arrival. Unbeknownst to her, however, an assassin is on his way to her chamber; his job is to kill her, take her place, and then kill the King of Sakiel-Norn during the sacrificial ceremony.