Contents
Chapter 3
Overview
The team escapes the Michiel campo and returns to Foundryside, where Orso exults over Sancia’s successful relay plant. They reveal a clandestine lexicon cradle designed to mirror Michiel updates. When plates begin filling immediately, they confirm the theft of Michiel definitions, escalating both their power and the imminent danger.
Summary
Bruised from the sun-bead mishap, Moretti rushes the paperwork and dismisses the team without apology. Escorted out, Sancia quietly confirms to Berenice that the infiltration worked, sending Orso into jubilant relief as they depart the campo and traverse the lamplit Commons.
They reach Foundryside’s Diestro Building amid watching Lamplanders. Inside, Orso celebrates while Gregor secures the building. A knock brings ex-colleagues Claudia and Giovanni, who eagerly ask if the scheme succeeded. The group moves past their scriving library toward the basement.
In the basement, Orso unveils a test lexicon and an empty cradle loaded with blank plates, now secretly twinned to the Michiel hypatus lexicon by Sancia’s relay cube. The plan: when Michiel updates are centralized and twinned across their cradles, those arguments will also imprint onto Foundryside’s blank plates.
As they discuss timing and risks, a sharp snap comes from the cradle. Orso opens it to find a once-blank plate covered in sigils, apparently in Moretti’s hand. The immediate imprint proves the Michiels already implemented the twinning, confirming Foundryside is now siphoning their proprietary definitions.
Orso, near tears, declares the heist a success: they have begun stealing the Michiels’ carefully guarded scrivings, promising to upend Tevanne’s balance of power even as Gregor warns that discovery will bring swift and lethal retaliation.
Who Appears
- Orso IgnacioExultant mastermind; reveals the relay-linked cradle and confirms theft as plates fill, anticipating power and risk.
- Sancia GradoInfiltrator who planted the relay; quietly confirms success and monitors the cradle’s changes.
- Berenice GrimaldiEngineer who explains the twinning strategy; shares cautious optimism when the plates change.
- Gregor DandoloSecurity lead; keeps them moving, secures HQ, and warns of severe retaliation once discovered.
- ClaudiaFormer colleague turned Lamplander; arrives for news and witnesses the cradle begin copying definitions.
- Giovanni (Gio)Former colleague; astonished by the relay plan and the immediate imprinting of Michiel sigils.
- Armand MorettiMichiel scriver; approves paperwork and, offsite, appears to implement twinning, triggering the copied plates.