Signum Dinios Kol arrives alone at a fog-shrouded estate in Daretana to investigate a death on behalf of his absent Iudex Investigator. At the servants’ gate, Princeps Otirios of the Apothetikal questions why the investigator did not come, then escorts Din through a vine-warded entrance and into a lavish Haza clan house where shaken servants are still screaming.

Otirios brings Din to the bedroom, where Commander Taqtasa Blas of the Engineers hangs suspended, impaled and consumed by fast-grown shootlike “trees” that erupted from within him, smashed through the roof, and left a mirror-like pool of blood. Otirios reports the growth took less than five minutes and that Apothetikal alterations cannot cause such an effect; contagion is possible but so far shows no spread across the grounds.

Left alone, Din uses an engraver’s scent vial to “engrave” the room into perfect memory. He spots a single ugly bloom among the shoots, examines Blas’s belongings, and recognizes a fancy pot of aromatic “therapy oils.” Din also notices mold blooming on fernpaper walls in the bathing closet—unusual given fernpaper’s resistance. Din briefly panics at his own inadequacy and vomits out the bathing closet window, then overhears Otirios mocking him as an incompetent boy; Din retaliates by ordering Otirios to isolate witnesses, guard exits, and prevent collusion.

Din searches the mansion and grounds, noting a shriveled, dying kirpis air-cleaning mushroom near the kitchens, a wet spot of blood under the stove, and no sign of entry beneath the bathing window. In the groundskeeper’s hut, Din finds a large clay oven still warm. Din secretly removes and reads Blas’s small, hard-to-read book aloud to memorize it; it appears to be a log of inspection travel and construction checks along wall segments and cantons.

Din interviews the staff individually: a servant girl says Blas complained of chest pain and trouble breathing before he died; Ephinas adds Blas often stayed here as a “friend” of the Hazas and routinely pawed at servant girls. Another servant girl mentions being uncomfortably hot and explains kirpis mushrooms die quickly from moisture; the cook attributes the kitchen blood to larfish and insists Blas likely caught something at the sea walls. Groundskeeper Uxos confirms kirpis sensitivity and says he uses fire to sterilize tools to avoid fungal transfer; housekeeper Madam Gennadios admits only she and Uxos keep reagents keys overnight and repeats that Blas was merely a friend, while warning the Hazas have allies above Din. With no clear intrusions and only Blas arriving late the night before, Din replaces the book, allows corpse removal for study, and leaves with Otirios—insisting the case would not have been easier had the investigator come.