Din Kol is jolted awake in the Sublimes’ quarters by what he recognizes as bombard fire, not thunder. He rouses the others and joins the town of Daretana as it scrambles to the eastern earthworks. When a breach beacon flares, alarms ring and troops muster; orders arrive to send all Engineers and Legion officers south toward Talagray, while those remaining prepare Daretana for possible evacuation.

Captain Thalamis berates Din and orders him to report to Ana Dolabra. Din finds Ana monitoring her quake contraption; Ana calmly argues evacuation is unlikely because the tremors are fading, suggesting the Legion has drawn the leviathan back toward the sea walls to be killed by bombards. To steady Din, Ana asks him to make tea, and she explains that even if the leviathan is dealt with, the wet season will remain dangerous after any breach.

Din stays up through the night as Ana paces, researches, and talks to distract him. By morning, Ana’s quake chimes fall silent, implying the leviathan has retreated or been killed. Din then waits with others at Stephinos’s post station until a Legion messenger arrives close to evening and announces the leviathan has been felled near Sapfir, but has left a wall gap over a league wide; Daretana must brace for a major influx of imperial troops.

The messenger also orders Ana to remain in place for a briefing by Commander-Prificto Desmi Vashta. Ana immediately suspects something is wrong, has Din buy better clothes and boots, and prepares him for a serious talk and likely travel. The next night, Vashta arrives with Captain Kepheus Strovi; Strovi quietly checks Din for signs of surveillance, and Din uses his engraver’s memory to report nearby visitors as ordinary.

Inside Ana’s quarters, Vashta asks for a detailed account of Commander Taqtasa Blas’s murder; Ana has Din deliver a precise summary of the investigation and its conclusions. Vashta then reveals a secret: the breach was enabled because the walls were destabilized from within before the leviathan arrived, forcing the Legion to pull bombards from the segment that later failed. Ana connects this to her case and bluntly guesses the destabilization came from multiple people inside the fortifications spontaneously sprouting trees; Vashta confirms it, and Ana realizes the Blas murder points to a broader, frightening pattern.