When asked whether S. “still want[s] to find Vévoda” he realizes that his still does. What is surprising is that Sola “has found the location of the Chateau,” which seems odd since its location is a well kept secret. If it were that simple, Sola should have found the Chateau years ago and spared S. copious amounts of grief.

At the Chateau, a large gathering of Vévoda’s clients is to occur “nine months from now, in land-time.” The distinction between land-time and ocean-time is made because throughout the novel, S. has experienced a strange warping of time on the ship; what feels like only weeks on the ship seem to be years on land.

With regard to the upcoming event at Vévoda’s chateau, Jen wonders whether “anything like [that] ever happened @ Bouchard’s” but Eric thinks it might be something “VMS wanted to happen.”