The invasion of the eternals reaches Damaris, who is forced to confront the manifest reality of her corrupted intellect.

Visiting the not-quite comatose Mr Berringer, Anthony is startlingly confronted by the elementals. Accepting the challenge, he passes through into a greater sense of his own potential.

Trying to clear her mind - largely of other people - with a walk, Damaris is startled to find a half-mad Quentin, who babbles of being 'hunted.' Anthony is none too impressed on hearing the news.

Having escaped from the clutches of Mr Foster and Miss Wilmot, Anthony seeks enlightenment from Mr Richardson, another seeker after knowledge. He has translated a mediaeval thesis on angelology, which offers some surprising insights on their predicament.

Determined to know more about the source of the manifestations, Anthony sets out to meet the 'seekers' who have attended Mr Berringer's group and finds more than he bargained for.

Abandoned by Quentin, Anthony tries to make sense of proceedings: what it might mean for himself, for Damaris and - more disturbingly - for the survival of the world.

Returning to the house where he and Mr Tighe saw the butterflies, Anthony is startled that the earth seems to be in motion. When the Lion makes another appearance, Quentin is driven to flee, leaving Anthony alone and no closer to comprehending the mysterious events.

As Quentin and Antony discuss their next steps, they are visited by Mr Foster, a seeker after knowledge who believes in, and seems unnervingly to welcome, the victory of the Forms over the human world.

Following his experience of the Lion and Damaris' experience - possibly - of the Snake, Anthony Durrant visits Mr Tighe, only to be overwhelmed by a third eruption of the Forms.

Damaris Tighe, doctoral student in ideas about forms and images, is prevailed upon to give a talk to a group of seekers-after-truth. This talk is spoiled, much to her annoyance, when one of the seekers claims to have seen one of the images manifest in the form of a serpent.