Chapter 25

Medikkers revive a dangerously drunk Kurmini woman found in Burav’s vault with a potizo crab. The vault holds Daljen tomes, master-statues, forest reagents, and many Choros Ayak wines. Princeps Seriv identifies the woman as Madi Istelia, Burilis Burav’s longtime housekeeper. The Orbiis also note tools identical to those used for forest entry.

Clues mount: corks stamped with the Choros Ayak flower match Velona’s account of Lyimo’s gift wine. Ana infers the wine carried the web that infected Lyimo. After being gently questioned by Din, Istelia confirms Jalin’s lifelong torment—locked alone as a child, forced to work the flensing halls, fixated on cattle suffering—and his loathing for the Burav trade. After Lyimo’s death, Jalin spiraled into moodies, watched distant woods, and returned with purple leaves; on the night of Zansay’s memorial he tenderly apologized to Istelia before the fire consumed the estate, forcing her to hide in the vault.

Ana reconstructs events: Jalin first used tainted wine and conditioning to lure Lyimo but, when Lyimo resisted, drowned him manually, leaving a bruise matching Jalin’s ring. Later killings shifted—careful, targeted at Armentas—implying a second, subtler killer who “owned” Jalin, perhaps by blackmail. Jalin likely played the forest tunes that sent Castus raging and inadvertently killed Zansay, then saw forest lights signaling “Calm.” Panicking over Zansay’s webbed corpse and the arriving Iudex, he set the Burav fire, tried and failed to save Burilis, and fled to the forest fearing the true mastermind.

Tauri doubts Jalin can reach the sealed Touched Site, but Ana turns to method: Burav’s curated Daljen studies suggest a missing map Jalin took. She proposes recreating his route by cross-referencing shrine lore with a fresh forest sketch. Tauri drafts a precise map; Ana vows by dawn to identify likely shrines and dispatch the Orbiis and Din to pursue Jalin deep into the Daljen heartland.