Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses ableism and violence.

In Daretana, a small town in the outer reaches of “Great and Holy Empire of Khanum” (15), 20-year-old Dinios “Din” Kol, assistant to investigator Anagosa “Ana” Dolabra, speaks to Otirios, an imperial officer about a body that has been discovered. Though Din is a signum, an officer role in the imperial military, and therefore outranks the other man, Din’s youth raises natural doubts of his ability, particularly as Ana has sent him to investigate without her. Otirios, an Apothetikal, a magic user responsible for “organic alterations” (20), or enhancements of organic matter, leads Din through a gate that is guarded by plants enchanted to seek out and paralyze intruders; only Otirios’s chemical key lets them pass by unharmed. Din gapes at the majestic estate.

Otirios explains that the dead body is suspected to be that of Commander Taqtasa Blas, a high-ranking officer. The body can neither be definitively confirmed as Blas nor definitively confirmed as a body, because death arose via magical alteration. Din struggles to remain composed as servants scream hysterically around him, reminding himself of his role as “an officer for the Iudex” who works in “delivering justice” (23).