- Now we're at a masque, which is basically a European costume party. The Pilkingses, the Prince, the Resident, and the Resident's aide-de-camp are there; the Prince and the Pilkingses are chatting. Congrats, Simon.
- A footman comes in with a note for Pilkings, which the Resident snatches and reads before the servant can interrupt Simon's conversation with the Prince. He then extricates Simon tactfully from the convo so he can tell him about the note.
- As he's leading Simon away, the Resident gives an order to his aide-de-camp.
- We don't know what's in the note yet, beyond the fact that it was labeled "Emergency." The Resident wants to know if something serious is going on, and Pilkings explains the ritual that Elesin and the others are participating in. Apparently the Resident has sent his aide to get Amusa for more details, so Simon sends his wife after the aide to follow up and speed them back.
- After giving Pilkings a hard time for his handling of this situation up to this point, and commanding him to keep things under control and file a report the next day, the Resident returns to the party.
- Pilkings then dismisses the aide-de-camp. When Amusa still can't look at him in his costume, Pilkings dismisses him for the night as well, and heads out to intervene, leaving Jane at the party.
- After all the men leave, Jane is standing there on her own when Olunde, Elesin's son, arrives.
- They're glad to see each other at first, especially since Olunde is looking for Simon, but the conversation soon sours when Jane realizes Olunde's time in England has made him less pro-English, rather than more. Oops. They go back and forth as Olunde offers some reflections on England and the English.
- He explains that he got word of the king's death and knew that his father would have to die, per tradition, so he's come back to fulfill his duty of burying his father. Jane is totally baffled that Olunde would accept his father's death that easily and not want Simon to stop it.
- They hear the drums change, and Olunde takes this to mean that the deed is done; Jane is horrified at how casual Olunde is about the idea that his father is now dead.
- Hearing Jane getting upset, the aide-de-camp runs in. Thinking Olunde is to blame, he starts getting in his face and being super insulting. Jane eventually gets him to back off and leave again, assuring him she's better now.
- Jane and Olunde then discuss his reaction to believing his father dead, and Jane seems to genuinely try to understand.
- Then Simon comes back and is surprised to find Olunde there. He asks Jane to go get the aide-de-camp. (The aide-de-camp must be getting tired from all this coming and going.)
- Olunde tells Simon he has no hard feelings about Simon's attempts to stop the ritual from happening—but he also says he's glad Simon didn't succeed, because the results would have been catastrophic. Simon doesn't really seem to know how to react to this one.
- Olunde tries to scurry off to see his father's body before it's cold, but Pilkings asks him to wait, since there were armed policemen outside who had been told not to let people pass. He says he'll send Olunde over to somewhere he refers to as "the place" with the aide-de-camp and some other men.
- The aide-de-camp comes back at that moment. Simon pulls him aside and asks him to get the keys to a cellar in the Residency's annex (which is where enslaved people were housed in the slave trading days).
- The two men also discuss logistics for making sure the Residency is well guarded that night. Apparently they are worried about rioting, and Simon mentions that he's taking "the prisoner" down (presumably to the cellar) himself. Wait… what prisoner?
- Olunde is still trying to get Pilkings to let him leave to be with his father's body, but Simon puts him off, saying that he's still dealing with that situation and Olunde will just have to chill out for now. He scuttles out, and Jane and Olunde are left there confused.
- Then they hear Elesin yelling, which is obviously kind of a surprise, since, you know, he is supposed to be dead.
- Elesin runs in, having tried to escape his captors; he's handcuffed and pretty angry about having his plans thwarted.
- He's shocked at finding his son there. Olunde is angry, ostensibly because his father failed to complete his task, and tells Elesin that he doesn't have a father anymore. Olunde leaves, and Elesin is upset.