Din Kol returns to the Haza estate one last time to collect material Ana Dolabra requested from Gennadios. Gennadios ushers Din into her room and hands over the item in a furtive, guilty exchange.

Din examines the slim red leather notebook and struggles to read the wobbling text, concluding it looks like shorthand and asking if it is code. Gennadios angrily corrects Din that it is a book of dates and insists Ana can interpret it, then dismisses Din from her room.

Outside, Din finds Apoth teams in protective warding suits draining the boiler and searching the gutters for signs of contagion. Princeps Otirios, working among them, reports they found a slender slip of grass washed into the drains, matching Ana’s suspicion.

Din presses for interpretation, and Otirios explains that dappleglass typically spreads broadly and only forms small clumps in people, but this specimen appears different. Otirios hypothesizes it was altered to release fertile spores only when exposed to hot water, with those spores growing only inside living tissue and producing plants that cannot themselves make spores, making the attack highly targeted rather than household-wide.

Otirios warns Din to advise others to inspect their baths before using them. As Din leaves, Din pauses by the groundskeeper’s hut and observes the fernpaper walls blackening and molding further, mentally preserving the spreading stain before departing the estate.