Chapter 27

At night, Sancia rides a submerged capsule along a mango barge into the Candiano enclave while Gregor sets the air-sailing anchor. Before submerging Sancia, Berenice tentatively suggests getting a drink after the job, revealing mutual interest. Sancia surfaces beside the Mountain, uses Estelle’s blood to open a hidden garden door, and enters a long tunnel into the Mountain.

Inside, the Mountain’s immense interior overwhelms Sancia until Clef buffers the scriving noise. As she rides lifts upward, a new voice speaks in her mind—the Mountain itself, a sentient construct bound to Candiano rules. It guides her while questioning her nature, revealing it is not merely a building but a scrived domain that senses and subtly manipulates everything within. It shows her an indoor desert with an ancient obelisk and explains Tribuno built its mind to attract hierophants.

Through this, the Mountain suggests hierophants endure and cites Crasedes Magnus. It shares a crucial correction: legends of Crasedes’s “wand” are a mistranslation—the tool was a key. Clef may be that key. Shaken, Sancia reaches Tomas Ziani’s floor and enters his stark office modeled after hierophantic chambers, searching for the imperiat.

The Mountain reports Ziani moving the imperiat nearby with armed guards who now approach. Sancia tries to flee via the balcony, but a new binding blocks the exit. Clef strains against the Mountain’s constraints to crack it. With seconds left, Sancia wedges Tribuno’s blood to keep the door ajar, seals Clef into the cask, and deploys the air-sailing rig, sending Clef out over the campo.

At once, Ziani’s golden device seizes Sancia’s body, paralyzing and puppeting her; his guards capture her. Meanwhile, Gregor receives the parachute and finds Clef, but on his way to Orso he is ambushed by Estelle Ziani and accomplices. Estelle stabs Gregor, takes Clef, and orders his body dumped into the canal.