Chapter 16

Commander Tauri arrives at the burned Burav estate with Orbiis officers, tests the main well, and confirms guiding web contamination. Parchment tests show nearly all mansion residents are infected, while outlying workers are not. Din and Seriv test negative, and Tauri orders sweeping quarantines and water surveys to prevent downstream spread.

Din reports to Ana, who reconsiders motives: the web has devastated both Buravs and Armentas, suggesting months of planning and possibly shared perpetrators. They visit Jalin Burav in the medikker tents; grievously burned, he admits trying to save his family, begs for death, and lapses into unconsciousness. Ana orders a custodus to guard him.

Din searches Jalin’s distant cottage, finding gentle cattle sketches, many mood-regulating reagents, and a carefully placed drawing of a fruit-laden tree bearing Master Gaddar’s symbol. A troubling inner voice briefly intrudes on Din’s thoughts before fading.

Tauri’s engineers collapse a weakened mansion corner to expose a concealed janarti steel vault with a four–triacontahedron tumbler lock and a Kurmin inscription: “Brilliance is forever fecund.” Ana derides the riddle yet demands the tumbler characters and Burilis Burav’s service record. She speculates the altered forest might confine something within, not repel intruders, and arranges a private talk with Tauri later.

En route back to Lacanthim, Ana explains that forest flashes were lantern code using a simple splice; the repeated word was “calm.” She infers multiple operatives and that the arson likely came from within the estate. Reframing the prowler as a potential target, not arsonist, she heads to the Armenta-favored Crooked Horn—where the prowler reveals himself as Ippeas Armenta.