Chapter 13

In Old Ditch during carnival preparations, Orso balks at returning to the Mountain. Sancia explains Valeria showed her a conical, golden-tinged component: a crude hierophantic scriving definition Tribuno Candiano embedded in the Mountain’s lexicon. The group realizes these hybrid definitions grant unprecedented authority but still demand a sacrificial death.

Orso reasons that inside the dome reality is already destabilized; with retooling, the Mountain could act as a forge that permanently remakes anything within its sphere. Sancia concludes this is how Crasedes plans to reshape Valeria into a catastrophic weapon, making seizing a definition urgent.

They debate infiltration constraints: Michiel control, heavy defenses, and the danger of using the imperiat inside the Mountain. Gregor proposes exploiting carnival—hiding assets in large wine casks and staging a parade through the outskirts near the enclave, providing cover to approach and extract a definition before nightfall.

Privately, Sancia tells Gregor she secured Valeria’s promise to fix him. Gregor admits recognizing Crasedes’s voice and suspects Crasedes designed his cranial plate, dreading what restored memories might reveal. Though they press on, both doubt Valeria’s benevolence. They hurry to act by daylight, hoping to move before Crasedes’s night advantage returns.