Chapter 28

Sancia wakes in a silent foundry cell, aching from dolorspina venom, and briefly sees a nude woman of gold who commands her to get “him” to leave. The vision vanishes as the imperiat seizes Sancia’s will, marching her to a chamber where Tomas Ziani and Candiano guards strap her to an operating table beside Tribuno’s trove, including a corroded, lock-faced sarcophagus-like box.

Ziani tests control over Sancia, taunts and assaults her, and demands the “key.” When he re-enables her will, Sancia stalls, fearing what he knows about her infiltration and allies. Enrico, the Candiano scriver, arrives and, using the imperiat, concludes Sancia is a unique, functioning scrived human: her cranial plate runs on Occidental sigils, symbiotically siphoning her life—an anomaly that could relate to Tribuno’s secret work.

Ziani loses patience and starts to cut open Sancia’s scar. At that instant the imperiat emits a deafening alarm, dropping everyone to the floor as a vast mental voice—the golden woman—commands Sancia to get them to leave. Blood runs from Sancia’s eyes and ears as the sound fades, terrifying Ziani and Enrico.

Seizing the opening, Sancia invents a plausible lie: Orso’s man used a submersible capsule in the campo canals to extract the key, and might be hiding or fleeing with it. The lead tempts Ziani, who orders an immediate canal search and to bring the imperiat, leaving Sancia still restrained but buying her a chance to survive.