Over four fruitless days, Dinios Kol crosses Yarrowdale by road and water to interview Apoth officers with access to the safe. He speaks to more than thirty of them and finds that each either has a solid alibi for the tenth of Hajnal or has not entered the vault in a long time. While Din grows discouraged and pays the first installment of his debt to Madam Poskit, Ana isolates herself in a chaos of theft records and continues searching for a hidden pattern without sharing any breakthrough.

On the fifth day, Din learns that the next officer on his list has joined Prificto Kardas’s delegation in the western hills. He rides out through rain into territory that feels increasingly separate from the Empire and reaches a rough Yarrow fort where Treasury and royal carriages wait outside. While deciding not to interrupt the meeting, Din hears weeping from one of the Yarrow carriages, looks inside, and finds nearly a dozen chained Yarrow people, mostly women and girls, imprisoned in miserable conditions.

Din is confronted by a broad, purple-faced Yarrow court official who refuses to give his name and claims the prisoners are fugitives being returned to their rightful places. The man makes clear that Din is standing on Yarrow soil, outside imperial authority, and shows open hostility. Kardas emerges and identifies him as Thale Pavitar, the jari of the Yarrow court, then quickly tries to defuse the confrontation and send Din away before matters worsen.

As Din leaves, he meets Satrap Danduo Darhi, the king’s chief adviser, a green-painted courtier whose manner is cold but calculating. Darhi questions Din about traveling alone to investigate the murdered Treasury officer, then gives him a silver oathcoin and says any Yarrow noble who sees it is bound to grant him a service. Din senses that Kardas is anxious about offending the court, while Pavitar watches him with open menace as he departs.

On the road back, Malo intercepts Din and explains what he saw. The chained prisoners are naukari, hereditary servants bound to land and lord under Yarrow’s older customs, and Pavitar enforces those ancestral oaths; the fort is used to hold runaways before they are returned. Malo examines Darhi’s gift and concludes that while Pavitar wants to intimidate Din, Darhi may be trying to buy influence with him.

Malo then shares the first strong lead in days: an old fisherman saw five men traveling by boat shortly before the tenth of Hajnal, four dressed like jungle fighters and one in Treasury white with a bag over his head. The sighting points to an area near an old smuggler camp that the wardens suspect is active again, and Din realizes it may be where Sujedo was taken, killed, or where the impostor may still be hiding. He brings the news to Ana, who approves the expedition despite her own stalled research and warns Din that their unseen enemy is careful enough to leave no trace and may be far more dangerous than they yet understand.