Chapter 26: Trust

Fearing ongoing malfeasance and mindful that Devi holds his blood, Kvothe decides to confront her. On the way he considers that someone might have stolen his blood from her, resolving to confirm its safety. He arrives in Imre, returns a book, trades light banter, and probes her knowledge of sygaldry and the plum bob, noticing a guilty flicker in her eyes that convinces him she sold the formula to Ambrose.

Kvothe demands to see his blood. Devi refuses, growing cold and guarded. Convinced of her guilt, Kvothe produces a wax mommet and one of Devi’s hairs, then notices her glance at a drawer and binds her with sympathy to stop her from retrieving what he assumes is a mommet of him.

Devi fights free by activating a poor-boy, flooding herself with heat to fuel stronger bindings. Kvothe splits his mind multiple times but cannot hold her. She arms herself with a thread link and threatens to burn him unless he releases his bindings. He yields; Devi plucks hairs from his head, rebinds him completely, and immobilizes him with crushing precision.

While holding him helpless, Devi reveals someone offered fifty-five talents for Kvothe’s blood, which she refused to sell, asserting she honors her bargains. She declares their business ended and calls his nine-talent debt due by term’s end, warning she will sell his blood if he is late and that involving authorities will end badly for him.

Devi briefly reproduces the feverish sensation that has plagued Kvothe, then shatters the mommet with controlled force, releasing him. She orders him to leave and to send payment through someone else, vowing never to see him again. Kvothe departs humiliated, realizing Devi was not the malfeasant and that he has worsened his financial and personal predicament.