Din Kol escorts three reluctant witnesses from the Haza estate—housekeeper Madam Gennadios, servant Ephinas, and groundskeeper Uxos—to Ana Dolabra’s home, carrying his heavy practice sword. At the door Din attempts to check them for weapons; Gennadios refuses a pat-down, so she and Ephinas only display their robes while Din searches Uxos and finds nothing.

Ana, blindfolded to sharpen her thinking, questions Gennadios about why Commander Taqtasa Blas was staying alone at an estate the Hazas were not visiting, and why he did not lodge with other Engineers in Daretana. Ana pushes the implication that Blas was being entertained there and hints that the Hazas must have been receiving something in return. When Gennadios tries to stonewall, Ana threatens to let the Hazas believe Gennadios has leaked scandalous details to the Iudex, coercing her into cooperation and records of Blas’s past visits.

Ana then accuses Uxos of assisting the killer and explains the method: Blas was infected in the bath with dappleglass placed in the shootstraw pipes; steam carried spores into Blas’s lungs and stained fernpaper walls. Ana argues an assassin entered via a fernpaper door, and Uxos noticed the resulting dappleglass spotting, swapped the door out, and burned the tainted one—causing a hot night because a door left open let humid air kill the cooling kirpis shroom. As Ana hints that evidence will linger in Uxos’s fernpaper hut despite burning, Uxos panics and lunges at her.

Uxos produces a boot-knife Din failed to find, but Din reacts instantly, intercepting with the lead-and-wood practice sword and beating Uxos down. Din’s rage nearly kills Uxos until Ana stops Din by throwing a book at his head and orders Gennadios and Ephinas outside, keeping Uxos alive for questioning.

Uxos confesses: two months earlier, a fine-dressed, swollen-faced stranger claimed Blas was a traitor and threatened Uxos with charges while offering a large reward. Uxos was instructed to check daily at the northwest corner of the grounds for a yellow wooden ball; when it appeared, Uxos was to return at midnight to admit the assassin. The assassin arrived masked and fully in black, wearing an Apoth-style warding helm and carrying a small wooden box; afterward Uxos saw fernpaper rotting where the assassin touched, panicked, and destroyed evidence. Din uses his engraver’s bonds to restrain Uxos and later delivers him to the Arbiters.

Back at Ana’s, she admits she can explain methods faster than motives and directs Din’s next steps: locate Blas’s secretary for questioning, ask the Apoths to inspect the bath pipes for remaining dappleglass, and obtain Gennadios’s dates of Blas’s visits. Ana suspects the trail leads to Tala canton and Talagray, where Blas worked on the sea walls and where the Hazas have influence, though jurisdiction may be an obstacle. As Din leaves to report to the Iudex Magistry, Ana answers his question about Oypat’s destruction by a phalm-oil burn and warns that the Empire’s defenses are never permanent—while her quake device rings again, signaling danger approaching.