Din Kol and Ana Dolabra arrive at Talagray’s Trifecta and meet Iudex investigator Tuwey Uhad, his assistant investigator Captain Tazi Miljin, Engineering Immunis Vasiliki Kalista, and Apoth Immunis Itonia Nusis. Uhad explains Commander-Prificto Vashta has become seneschal under emergency breach powers, and the group moves into a commandeered, smoke-choked magistry chamber where secrecy is emphasized.

Uhad presents the current case: ten confirmed officer deaths caused by a dappleglass “bloom,” with files on their quarters and movements. The victims died in varied locations (including within the sea walls at the Peak of Khanum), over a nine- to ten-hour window, and the growths tended to erupt lower on the torso than Commander Blas’s did. The team admits they have not interviewed friends or associates yet; they suspect Engineers are being targeted but cannot see how such blooms could be timed precisely to sabotage a specific wall strut.

Ana demands lists: witnesses to each death, and a year’s worth of the victims’ assignments and living arrangements, explicitly to identify close contacts and likely lovers. She then asks about Commander Blas; all but Miljin claim to have known him and describe him as admired and professional, while Nusis mentions Blas’s Preservationist Council liaison work reviewing projects that might enable contagion escape from Talagray.

At Ana’s order, Din recounts the full Blas investigation (Uxos’s masked, swollen-faced assassin contact; dappleglass poisoning). Ana highlights that dappleglass stains fernpaper, but Miljin reports they found no stained panels after the breach. Ana pivots to a wider timeline and instructs Miljin to query fernpaper millers for any stained-panel replacements or unusually large deliveries in the four weeks before the breach, seeking the poisoning or storage site. Plans are set for Miljin to conduct interviews with Din present, while Nusis will add Talagray-area immunities to Din’s grafts; Miljin briefs Din on Talagray’s flare warnings for leviathan threats.

Uhad settles Ana and Din into quarters in the Iudex tower. Privately, Ana and Din agree the meeting felt tense, especially around Blas, and Ana notes a disturbing omission: no one reacted when Din revealed Blas died while visiting a Haza house, even though Ana never disclosed that detail by letter. Suspecting the Talagray team is reluctant to dig into Blas, Ana decides to secretly summon Blas’s secretary, Rona Aristan, without informing Uhad; as Engineering documents arrive, Ana begins searching for patterns and fears the killer may have also murdered non-Engineers unnoticed.