Contents
Chapter 17
Overview
Sancia, aided by Clef’s intensifying bleed-through, locates the clandestine listening rig beneath Orso’s workshop—but it is booby-trapped with a scrived bomb, forcing the group to set an ambush instead of seizing it. Orso confronts Sancia about Silicio, triggering her trauma and revealing her origin as a rare, illegally scrived human. The team recalibrates: Orso offers to study and perhaps reverse her condition, while Berenice prepares tracking scrivings for the impending tail.
Summary
At dusk, Berenice drives Sancia and Gregor to Orso’s hypatus workshop. Clef’s growing strength bleeds into Sancia, letting her hear scrivings without touch. Following the voices, she tracks the clandestine sound recorder to a walled-off basement crawlspace.
Inside the hidden space, Sancia detects a second device: a scrived mine keyed to a specific signal. Sensing a sulfurous barrel, she and Clef conclude it’s a bomb that will spark if approached without authorization. Unable to disable it safely, they withdraw and decide to wait for the operators to return, aiming to capture them.
Tension rises when Orso questions Sancia’s unexplained abilities and origin. Pressed, he names the Silicio Plantation; Sancia snaps, assaulting him in a PTSD flashback before Gregor restrains her. Orso denies involvement and explains the outlawed practice of human scriving and why it fails on living minds—yet rumors persist of off-shore experiments like Silicio.
Sancia recounts being operated on by a one‑eyed scriver, awakening with the ability to “become” objects by touch, escaping her chains, killing her tormentor, and burning the house while locking doors through her new sense—killing all inside. She later stowed away to Tevanne, surviving by minimizing contact with the world’s overwhelming sensations.
Hoping for a cure, Sancia sought a physiquere, but Orso insists no one can simply fix a scrived human; she was likely misled. He offers shelter and to study her condition. With the bomb blocking the rig, they plan an ambush: Berenice will prepare tracking scrivings and accompany Sancia, since Gregor and Orso are too recognizable to tail suspects in rival campos.
Who Appears
- Sancia GradoThief augmented by illegal human scriving; locates the hidden recorder, discovers a bomb, relives Silicio trauma, admits burning the plantation.
- Orso IgnacioHypatus master; impatient, challenges Sancia, identifies Silicio, explains human scriving limits, offers to study and possibly help her.
- ClefAncient key; growing stronger, his perceptions bleed into Sancia, helps locate devices but cannot disable the bomb without contact.
- Gregor DandoloCaptain and Ofelia’s son; supports plan to ambush agent; restrains Sancia during flashback; too recognizable to join the tail.
- BereniceOrso’s assistant; drives the team, provides lights, will craft tracking scrivings and accompany Sancia on the tail.