A Drop of Corruption
by Robert Jackson Bennett
Contents
Chapter 40
Overview
Ana presents Thelenai with a new theory: Sunus Pyktis deliberately caused the original Shroud disaster, survived it, and has spent years building allies and resources to finish destroying the Shroud. Convinced that Pyktis may already have compromised the marrow operation, Ana persuades Thelenai to send Din into the Shroud to inspect it firsthand, escalating both the investigation and the personal danger. As the mission is arranged, Malo’s account of her past as a freed naukari deepens the chapter’s sense that Yarrow faces abandonment, repression, and very little hope.
Summary
Din, Ana, Malo, and Commander-Prificto Thelenai meet in Thelenai’s plant-filled office. Ana reviews what they know about Sunus Pyktis, beginning with the 1127 disaster on the Shroud, when titan’s blood reacted with pollen and killed the augurs. Ana argues that Pyktis likely survived, reached the High City of Yarrow, secured money and allies there, and then used smugglers and local support to continue a long-term plan.
Ana then advances her central theory: the Shroud catastrophe was not an accident but an attempted sabotage, and Pyktis has been trying ever since to finish destroying the Shroud. She reasons that Pyktis needed titan’s blood, reagents, smugglers, and political agents to prepare the attack, and that he is now killing former allies to prevent betrayal. Ana also notes that Pyktis can alter his appearance only in limited ways, which explains why he remains hard to identify but not wholly unrecognizable.
Because Pyktis has controlled the story for years, Ana says they must return to the place where the truth may still be found: the Shroud itself. She asks Thelenai to send Din there to question the augurs and inspect the marrow and its preparations. Ana fears Pyktis may already have infiltrated or poisoned the operation without anyone realizing it. After hesitation, Thelenai agrees, though she warns that allowing an engraver into the Shroud violates policy and will require unusual soothing treatments and mental adjustments for Din.
While Ana and Thelenai make plans, Din sits in shock, dreading the mission. Malo bitterly reflects on the Empire’s likely abandonment of Yarrow once the marrow is taken, and Din admits he had not known the plan. Their conversation turns personal when Malo reveals she was once a naukari and was freed only because a boy named Dokha used an oathcoin to ask for the freedom of young child laborers; the nobles executed him for it.
Malo says Yarrow’s old systems of throne, nobility, and bondage are so entrenched that many people cling to them even when they are destructive. She expects those who served the Empire to be hunted after withdrawal and sees little hope for change. Din impulsively offers to try to help Malo leave Yarrow and become attached to service deeper in the Empire, but Malo doubts that such mercy will truly be available. Even so, she thanks Din for thinking of her while he faces the dangerous journey into the Shroud.
Who Appears
- Dinengraver investigator; is ordered to enter the Shroud and inspect the marrow despite fearing the mission
- Anainvestigator who theorizes Pyktis planned the Shroud sabotage and pushes for Din’s dangerous inspection
- Commander-Prificto ThelenaiApoth commander who hears Ana’s case and reluctantly authorizes Din’s unprecedented access to the Shroud
- MaloApoth signum who discusses Yarrow’s likely abandonment and reveals her traumatic past as a former naukari
- Sunus Pyktisabsent antagonist believed to have survived 1127 and spent years preparing to destroy the Shroud
- Dokhaboy from Malo’s past who used an oathcoin to free child naukari and was executed for it