Contents
Chapter 33
Overview
Sancia staggers back to Orso’s group and reveals Estelle’s plan to become a hierophant by using altered Candiano sachets as ritual markers, sacrificing the entire company to empower herself. The team resolves to assassinate Estelle before midnight. Meanwhile, Estelle prepares the rite in her father’s office, having her incapacitated father brought in as the first death.
Summary
In the crypt, Orso argues for fleeing Tevanne after hours without word from Sancia or Gregor and the sudden Candiano lockdown. The Scrappers, Gio and Claudia, agree, while Berenice protests abandoning friends and leaving the imperiat to Tomas.
Sancia arrives, battered and dazed, and recounts Estelle’s betrayals: Estelle murdered Tomas, captured Clef and the imperiat, and intends to become a hierophant. Sancia believes Gregor is dead. She explains Valeria’s guidance about hierophant rituals requiring marked bodies and a transfer, and connects this to Candiano’s recently changed employee sachets.
Sancia argues the sachets have been tampered with to serve as ritual markers. If Estelle commences the rite, nearly all Candiano employees carrying sachets will die, their minds and souls absorbed to empower Estelle. Sancia insists they must stop her and recover Clef so Valeria can disable Candiano tools.
When Orso objects that assaulting the Candiano campo is impossible, Sancia identifies Estelle’s likely starting victim: someone she hates more than Tomas—her own still-living father. Orso realizes the ritual will occur in her father’s office, and they fix the deadline at midnight.
Cut to the Candiano office: Estelle inspects her father’s austere room, anticipates inscribing ancient transference sigils upon herself, and has attendants wheel in her frail, near-mindless father. She arranges for her foundry tools to arrive, smiling as she prepares to begin the transformation with his death.
Who Appears
- Sancia GradoReturns wounded; reveals Estelle’s hierophant plan, sachet markers, Gregor likely dead, and need for Clef; pushes plan to stop Estelle by midnight.
- OrsoInitially urges escape; grasps the sachet scheme and the likely ritual site; reluctantly agrees they must assassinate Estelle.
- BereniceOpposes fleeing; aids Sancia; highlights increased security at Candiano and the difficulty of infiltrating again.
- Estelle CandianoMastermind preparing to become a hierophant; sets up in her father’s office and has him brought as the first sacrifice.
- Giovanni (Gio)Frightened Scrapper; provides wine; notes prior sachet changes affecting their work.
- ClaudiaScrapper; considers fleeing; questions what hierophants can do and reacts to the sachet revelation.
- Estelle’s fatherCandiano patriarch, frail and near-mindless; brought on a rolling bed to be the ritual’s first victim.
- Candiano attendantHelps position the rolling bed and confirms delivery of Estelle’s equipment.