“The Hazas sent you here to clean up,” she said. “But the real mission
was to get back that damn reagents key—the one filled with the cure for
dappleglass. You learned from one of Kaygi’s many dirty sources that Nusis
just happened to have a reagents key that had been recovered from Rona
Aristan. You knew right away what it was. And with the leviathan
approaching, there was no time. You got desperate. You went to her office,
forced her to open the safe, and killed her—unaware that she and I had
already swapped out the keys, and I had the real one in the chest in my
rooms. Right upstairs, right now.”

- The Tainted Cup, Chapter 37 pg. 339

---

“What in hell?” said Miljin. “She vanished?”

“No,” said Ana, standing slowly. “She did not run away, I believe. She
went up, rather, climbing the tower.”

“Up?” said Vashta. “What the hell did she climb the tower for?”

“To get into my rooms,” said Ana. “The twitch is here for the reagents
key, after all. I said just now that it was in my chest, in my rooms—but this
was a lie. What the twitch will instead find there should be greatly
surprising to her.”

“We must go up!” said Vashta. “We must go up and catch her!”

“No,” said Ana. “She will come down, and soon. And then she will
perish. Let us go the atrium to meet her. For though we might not survive
the day, let us at least take comfort that the evil folk among us will not,
either.”

We exited the adjudication room in a dazed stagger, the bells ringing in
our ears, Miljin leading the way with his sword drawn. Fayazi Haza began
bawling that she wanted to go home, to go home, but Vashta told the
Legionnaire to clap a hand on her arm and not let her go.

Then we heard a scream from high above us, and the slam of a door
bursting open.

We looked up. A figure was staggering down the stairway, sobbing with
rage.

“What…” choked the twitch’s voice. “What have you done to me?”

Vashta drew her own blade and stood beside Miljin and the
Legionnaires, waiting. I stood before Ana, my sword held high. Then
another volley of flares rose, and the tower was filled with green light, and
we saw her.

The twitch was descending, her nose and mouth pouring blood. She
coughed, and yet more blood came, sloshing down her front.

“What did you do to me?” she spat. “What did you… what did you…”

Yet I recognized what I was now seeing. I had seen such a
transmutation before, when Miljin and I had found Ditelus on the Plains of
the Path.

“Dappleglass,” I said softly.

“Yes,” said Ana quietly. “I told you I was worried someone might try to
poison me, Din. I took three of your hairs and stuck them to the lid of my
teapot, just in case. Yesterday evening, while you were at the banquet, I
found them gone—and a tiny leaf stuck to the interior of the teapot with
resin. Dappleglass, of course.”

The twitch stumbled down the last length of stairway, her eyes now
leaking blood.

“Last night I lined my chest with leather, creating a seal,” said Ana.

“And then, this morning, I snipped off the tiniest bit of the leaf, placed it in
my teapot, and started it boiling at a low heat in my chest, and shut it. Not
much---but then, twitches don’t need much. They’re very vulnerable to
contagion…”

- The Tainted Cup, Chapter 38 pgs. 343-344