Chapter 24

After three days of frantic work, the crew finalizes tools and scrivings around the underwater capsule. Gregor arrives and privately confronts Orso about having developed a light-absorbing rig for Ofelia. Gregor recounts Ofelia’s proposal; Orso, shocked, denies knowledge and realizes it forms the basis of an assassin’s lorica, unsettling both men about Ofelia’s hidden agenda.

Orso then gathers everyone to review the heist. Berenice will tag a delivery barge so Sancia’s submerged capsule can be towed to the Mountain’s dock, surfacing at a distance. Using a cooling casket holding Tribuno’s blood, Sancia will reveal and open a concealed entrance beneath a white stone bridge in the sculpture gardens and enter the Mountain.

Pressed for specifics, Orso admits uncertainty: Sancia will emerge somewhere on the fourth floor and must reach the thirty-fifth, likely where Tomas Ziani’s office and the imperiat are located. Because the Mountain may detect the ruse, Orso unveils an air-sailing rig to let Sancia leap from the office balcony and parachute toward a field anchor Gregor will plant in the Candiano campo, after which they will sprint to the Commons. A hardened cask on the rig will protect the imperiat—though not Sancia.

Sancia reviews the escalating risks—experimental capsule, unknown interior route, high-altitude escape, and a likely armed pursuit—and challenges the lack of a real exit plan. Orso frames the theft as essential to stopping Ziani and reshaping scriving, but Sancia refuses, calling it a rich man’s fight where she is a disposable piece. She asserts her right to refuse the danger and walks out, leaving the team stunned.