Din Kol and Miljin ride back to Talagray in silence until Miljin reflects that keeping order used to be simpler, but now the city’s problems require “plotters” like Ana Dolabra. Miljin admits he is not a Sublime, only enhanced for physical performance, and warns that Ana’s skill at uncovering truths has likely angered powerful people.

Miljin probes Din’s readiness for violence and advises him to learn how to fight. He then drops a pointed rumor: Ana Dolabra’s previous assistant investigator may have been killed by a sword, implying Din could face similar danger if he remains unprepared and unwary.

As the mist clears, Miljin shows Din what lies east of Talagray: the enormous carcass of a dead leviathan, now disguised as a hill threaded with ribs and overgrown with strange, fast-sprouting vegetation. Miljin explains that leviathan blood transforms the land and can produce dangerous fruits; the Apoths would normally burn the body, but the nearby breach and fumes make that impossible. Din sees how far the leviathan traveled and how close Talagray came to destruction.

Back at the Trinity, Miljin breaks Vartas’s shootstraw pipe and gives half to Din as a rough reward, then heads off to report to Uhad and urges Din to stay indoors for curfew. After waiting to avoid suspicion, Din slips into a side street as the city closes for the night.

With patrols and curfew bells rising around him, Din heads west toward the home of Rona Aristan, an Engineering Iyalet official who served as Commander Blas’s Secretary Princeps for twelve years. Din intends to reach her and return before curfew, pursuing one more lead tied to Blas and the Engineer secrets.