Kol and Malo walk from the ossuary in New Town through Yarrowdale, and Kol recalls the city’s three-part layout: imperial New Town, decaying Old Town, and the distant High City where the Yarrow king now lives. The sea’s presence unsettles Kol, and Malo, who is Yarrow-born, teases him while noting that no living leviathan has appeared in Yarrowdale in living memory.

As they enter Old Town, Kol sees the contrast between imperial prosperity and the neglected former royal center. Malo explains that the old stone buildings were once sophisticated creations, but the court took away the knowledge needed to maintain them when it moved uphill. Kol also learns why the Treasury delegation was lodged there: the king of Yarrow dislikes tax officials and deliberately put them in a poor, dangerous quarter.

Malo brings Kol to the tall, leaning tower where Sujedo stayed, and Kol realizes the locked-room problem is even stranger because the chamber sits high above the ground. Inside, he finds a damp, moldy suite guarded by Apoth militii, six locked windows, emptied cupboards, and a mossbed stained with a large amount of blood. From the stain’s size and placement, Kol infers that Sujedo suffered a severe torso wound, likely fatal without treatment. He also notices the floor slopes, confirming the tower leans.

Kol asks who has already entered the room and is frustrated to learn that many people searched it and gathered the contents onto one table, making reconstruction harder. Malo tells him the removed top sheet and the chamber pot both carried Sujedo’s scent, and no other blood or trace of an intruder was found. Kol studies Sujedo’s belongings, noting a strong citrus-and-mold smell, Treasury uniforms, money, medicines for headaches associated with axiom augmentation, and a smooth rectangular piece of iron found near the windows. The iron object seems deliberate rather than broken debris, so Kol keeps it for further thought.

Kol inspects the windows and confirms they are intact, securely locked, and impractical as an entry or escape route given the deadly drop outside. Looking out, he surveys New Town, the jungle, and the High City before finally forcing himself to face the bay. There he sees the Shroud, a vast glowing structure offshore associated with leviathans and dread, and Malo says it brightens as the wet season approaches. The sight fascinates and disturbs Kol, who ends the inspection relieved that Sujedo’s case may have nothing to do with it.