Chapter 24

Din reports to Ana that Jalin Burav vanished just as evidence surfaced implicating him. Ana remains calm yet asserts Jalin is a killer and likely burned his own family, though Din notes the case is circumstantial. Ana reveals she found a clue in Daljenist scriptures that both disturbs her view of the Empire and points to Burav’s vault combination.

They return to the cleared Burav ruins. Commander Tauri updates them: trackers found Jalin entered the forest through a seam, likely using hidden Orbiis reagents. Testing shows Velona and Trikao Armenta are infected, while servants and custodi are clean, intensifying the mystery of selective poisoning.

At the vault, Ana explains the riddle’s answer is not a word or number but a symbol. She sets the tumblers to O, O, and two unadorned 1s (|), forming the Master Gaddar sign—the tree bearing fruit—previously seen in Jalin’s drawing. The door unlocks, which Ana takes as proof Jalin once opened the vault and learned a secret enabling bloodless killings.

Inside, instead of treasure, they find a library, desk, mai-lamps, and many pots of sotwine. The air reeks of wine and filth. A Kurmini woman, dressed like a senior servant and soaked in sotwine, lies on the floor. She startles awake, panics with a letter opener, then collapses again, revealing a living witness or captive hidden in the vault.