Chapter 26. Now: Maris

Before dawn, Maris resolves to find the key to the Consul’s hidden messages, sparked by Luca’s remark that the key would be hard to access. At the Hall of Scribes she encounters Drakon, claims to seek an agriculture scroll referenced by her mother, and presents her medallion to borrow it.

While Drakon retrieves the first scroll, Maris covertly examines the loan ledger and notices no entries under Consul Saturian’s name. Instead, she detects a pattern of repeated loans for the Tale of Hermaus, each under different, unfamiliar names, suggesting a covert rotation masking a single user.

Maris requests the Tale of Hermaus as well, receives the ancient scroll, and retreats to her mother’s chambers. She reflects on her abandoned plan with Luca to reshape the Forum, then studies the mythic text and its illustrations. Concluding it is the cipher key, she matches the Consul’s message to corresponding words in the tale and copies the extracted text onto fresh parchment.

As the tribunal bells ring, summoning Magistrates to the Forum, Maris hides the copied message beneath her robes. Determined to have someone who can read the first language interpret it, she dons her Magistrate’s robes and leaves to answer the Consul’s call, her quiet rebellion now in motion.