Din Kol makes his way through the muddy Daretana canton crossroads and into the jungle to reach his superior’s isolated fretvine house, noticing a bundle of newly delivered books on the porch. Hearing an anxious man’s voice inside, Din rushes in, fearing Immunis Ana Dolabra has trapped another visitor in one of her long, invasive conversations.

Inside, Din finds Captain Tischte of Engineering terrified as Ana, blindfolded, cheerfully interrogates him about irrigation works and ancient ruins. When Tischte uncovers a preserved dissected sparrow in a jar, he becomes even more alarmed. Din lies that Engineering urgently needs Tischte, but Ana immediately calls out the lie; still, she dismisses Tischte as “boring,” allowing him to flee. Outside, an outraged Tischte vents that Ana interrogated him for hours about personal details, then storms back toward town.

Din confronts Ana about cornering and exhausting people for information, but Ana argues she does it to collect data and “divine the nature of the pattern,” citing how she identified symptoms of irida from locals and warned Tischte about an infected well. Their bickering continues as Ana demands her delivered books; Din retrieves them while Ana avoids seeing him, then she eagerly “reads” by touch with hypersensitive altered fingertips, appreciating subtle printing differences.

Ana sinks into boredom and restlessness from staying indoors and having little stimulation in the canton. She presses Din to procure outlawed mood-altering grafts, implying they would curb her interrogations, but Din refuses on policy and job-security grounds, noting her reputation has already alienated most of the canton.

Trying to redirect her, Din finally reports the case: the dead man had trees erupt from inside him, tearing him apart. Ana’s mood flips instantly from melancholy to predatory excitement; she recognizes Din’s genuine horror as proof the death is extraordinary. Blindfolded again, Ana orders Din to recount every detail he engraved in his memory, and Din inhales lye aroma from his satchel to begin his full report.