The narrative briefly moves 2,000 years into the future, where Raziel foils Biff’s desperate attempt to escape the hotel, before returning to Biff and Joshua’s quest for the Magi. Biff teases Joshua about being a virgin, and Joshua punches him in the face. The boys reach a truce when Biff agrees to help Joshua “understand sin” (113). To that end, Biff sleeps with several sex workers and describes his experiences to his friend.

Joshua finds a Roman cargo ship that will take them to the coastal city of Selucia near Antioch. After the ship sets sail, Biff discovers that he’s afraid of sailing. He believes this fear stems from his people’s desert-dwelling history: “The one time we actually had to cross a sea, we walked” (118). The ship’s captain tires of Biff’s complaints and tosses him overboard.

Raziel calms the sea so that Biff can swim back to the ship and declares that Biff and Joshua are under divine protection. The captain behaves with subservient civility to the boys for the rest of the voyage and advises them to look for a woman with one eye when they reach Antioch.