Din Kol continues interviewing injured survivors in the medikkers’ wing, using his ash-scented vial to pull coherent timelines from reluctant witnesses. He finds a pattern: several of the dead Engineers returned to Talagray eight nights before the breach, giving vague or suspicious reasons. He also learns Princeps Kise Sira returned to Talagray not only on that date, but also on an earlier date two months before, suggesting recurring secret meetings.

When Captain Miljin compares notes, he reports one exception: Signum Ginklas Loveh supposedly had not been to Talagray for nearly a month. Loveh’s lover, Signum Sirgdela Vartas, instead claims Loveh traveled with Commander Taqtasa Blas to inspect the walls on the seventh and eighth of Egin. Din recognizes the dates as false because Din has seen Blas’s diary and knows Blas was elsewhere; Din concludes Vartas lied and asks Miljin’s permission to confront him.

Din and Miljin confront Vartas in his unusually comfortable recovery room. Under pressure and after Miljin violently intimidates him, Vartas admits he does not truly know where Loveh went, but says Loveh’s repeated Talagray trips were tied to career advancement, money, and work under Commander Blas. Vartas reveals Loveh attended these meetings many times and sometimes carried a small “coin thing,” while he was told not to ask questions.

Vartas identifies three close associates of Loveh from the same circle: Princeps Alaus Vanduo and Princeps Atha Lapfir (both among the dead), and a new name—Captain Kiz Jolgalgan, an Apoth—who is not on the list of the ten dead Engineers. Din and Miljin realize Jolgalgan may be an eleventh member and a surviving lead, and Miljin orders efforts to locate her.

Suspecting the “coin” would be stored safely, Din and Miljin search Loveh’s quarters and Misik Jilki’s quarters. Miljin tears through both rooms and finds hidden bronze boxes containing identical, unusual reagents keys: engraved bronze plates holding five tiny vials of multicolored fluids, apparently used to open highly secured vinegates or similar portals. Before leaving, Din notices a scarf of Jilki’s carrying the same oranje-leaf-and-spice scent as the oil found on Blas’s corpse, tightening the link between Blas, the secret meetings, and the deaths.