Severian watches the fight between Vodalus and the volunteers over the shoulder of a "chalcedony angel." Chalcedony is typically a lustrous white quartz. Vodalus lives and two volunteers die. Later, in Urth of the New Sun, Sev makes love with Apheta, a lustrous silver angel, and the new sun is created. The fight in the graveyard may foreshadow the creation of the new sun.