Din Kol reaches Rona Aristan’s neighborhood at dusk and finds her house dark and untouched by fresh footprints. As curfew bells begin, Din waits to see if Aristan returns, but no one comes to the door.

Fearing something is wrong, Din breaks in through the back using improvised lockpicks from his Sublime training. Inside, he finds the home violently ransacked—books shredded, cupboards emptied, furniture overturned—suggesting someone searched for a specific item.

In the bedroom, Din discovers a dead elderly woman, likely Aristan, decomposing for days. Examining her head, Din finds a small, precise hole at the base of her skull, with old blood, indicating an unusual, targeted killing rather than an accident.

Noticing an undamaged but repeatedly handled portrait of Commander Taqtasa Blas, Din removes it and finds a hidden compartment where a corner has been torn open. A small rosy-bronze key drops into his hand, implying Aristan concealed it and the intruder may have missed it.

Din follows the clue of a mounted spyglass aimed at a distant house marked by a blue cloth signal. Using the bronze key, Din enters the small, unused house and discovers a locked chest containing seven thousand-talint imperial silver plates, Aristan’s official wall pass showing repeated travel to four third-ring cantons, and a simple one-vial reagents key. Realizing these items suggest a larger secret operation, Din packs everything into his satchel and races back to the Trinity before curfew fully closes in.