Chapter 28: Kindling

Ambrose’s malfeasance continues in erratic bursts, striking eight times in one day and then not at all the next. The unpredictability forces Kvothe to keep an iron-hard Alar through daily life, leaving him exhausted enough to lose his first Adept Sympathy duel to two classmates.

Amid this strain, Fela bursts into their reading room with the long-sought Scrivani volume nine, the index-specified source for a malfeasance-warding gram. The book is in Eld Vintic, but Simmon can read it and demonstrates by paraphrasing in a poetic cadence. Fela’s reaction hints at a new, tentative affection for Simmon.

They discuss seeking help from Puppet but set the idea aside due to his recent instability and likely refusal to breach restrictions. With Simmon translating, Kvothe identifies the runes, metallurgical symbols, and likely abbreviations, and the group spends two days decoding and thoroughly verifying the gram’s schema.

Armed with the design, Kvothe begins crafting the gram. Because he must drop his defenses to work delicate sygaldry, he times sessions for when Ambrose is provably occupied—at cafés, lectures, or the Archives desk—snatching work in careful intervals.

When he cannot safely progress on the gram, Kvothe advances his Re’lar-level project for Kilvin, providing a legitimate reason to haunt the Fishery. He also frequents the Golden Pony to establish himself as a regular, building a public routine to mask his clandestine efforts.