Supreme Patriarch Septus XXIV sits at a hearing and thinks about his interests in the chains that prisoners wear. He and the The Lord Prosecutor are called to court because a man has claimed to reject the holy texts. Septus thinks about the snakes that are in the human blood stream which is something he learned from a Biblical story. This story explains that those who have little faith have snakes in their heart. The man--Anton Leeuwenhoek--explains that his magnifying device has shown him that there are no snakes in people's blood. The judges question him on his faith and eventually send him away. Septus finds interest in the magnifying device, but when he looks through, he sees something that resembles a snake in blood.

Charles Darwin and Anne VI are in a deep discussion together. Darwin explains that people in the past would look through microscopes at their blood. Darwin further explains that this separated people into hierarchies of Papists and the Redeemed. Anne asks why all Papists seem to have snakes in their bloodstream and Darwin explains that after people would look into the microscope, those with snakes in their blood would marry others who had it to keep it in the bloodline. Darwin believes that they kept it in the bloodline, which he further supports with his studies about pigeons. He describes that the belief of the Papists did not determine whether or not they had snakes. He gives an example about a Papist priest who went to an island and converted the people there. But because he did not mate with these people, they did not have the snakes. Darwin ends with proposing his origin of species of belief, but Anne does not want to hear it.

Senator McCarthy and a woman named Julia argue. Julia is a doctor and has studied blood. She explains that there are those who are SA-Positive and SA-Negative. She further explains that this determines whether or not a snake-like blood enzyme appears in people's blood--something people of the past argued about. She wants to create a medicine that will rid of that snake enzyme, but the court does not agree with her. She wants to create a narcotic to silence the enzyme, but they dismiss her. As she leaves, she sees someone with a sign that reads, "why do you concern yourself with the sleeping creature before you, when you are blind to the serpents in your own heart?"