GhulDril meets and old mercenary pal.
Zhe'raen desperately fights to make his patronage under Zha'nel endurable and winds up getting drunk alongside Ahriman and GhulDril.
Zhaunil has begun work on a New Body for Ahriman. HouseHasdrubel seems to be suffering from internal fractionalism as the various daughters are tieing more and more physical power to their respective persons. MatronGlavil is less than worried. Zhaunil has a conversation with WeaponsmasterScatha.
Later on, Zhaunil visits a brothel and gets very drugged/drunk and finds herself in the hands of MatronXym. The latter is polite in a dirty-old-woman kind of way. Word gets out that Zhaunil is "abducted" and forces are set in motion to bring her home, including HouseHasdrubel, a host of hard-cases from HouseNemalzhi and their allies as well as Xun, the mercenary. It seems an intra-house war of rarely seen proportions are in the making...
Zhaunil encounters the odd Weaponsmaster of the 4th House and finds him/it FAR more disturbing than his Matron.
Eventually Zhaunil is released from the custody of MatronXym and all ends peacefully, but tense.