“Tell her that someone is going to try to kill Fayazi Haza,” said Ana
simply.

“A… A THREAT AGAINST Fayazi Haza’s life?” said Vashta, horrified. “Again? Truly?”

“I’m afraid it is, ma’am,” said Ana. “There is a third assassin, and they
struck again tonight. I am convinced that they mean her ill.”

[...]

I led Ana up the stairs, the whole of the tower creaking about us in the
night wind.

“Just wish to comment, ma’am,” I said, “that, ah, I’ve no idea at all
what’s going on anymore.”

“We build a trap, Din,” said Ana. “Vashta herself said that the only
thing that would make Fayazi jump now would be if we said there was
another threat to her life.” She grinned. “And that is what I just told her.”

“You lied to her, ma’am?”

“Oh, I did,” said Ana. “But not about that. There is a threat to Fayazi’s
life---yet not the sort anyone expects.”

“Then… what did you lie to her about?”

“Well, for starters, I know who the third poisoner is, Din. And I now
know how those ten Engineers died. And I also know what that reagents
key truly was---and where it is now. I do feel a bit bad for lying to Vashta
about all that, but… well, there is so much corruption in this canton that I
worry an errant word from her could ruin my plot.”

- The Tainted Cup, Chapter 36 pgs. 324-325

---

She pivoted on her heel to turn to Fayazi, leaning her blindfolded face
forward. “You didn’t know much of this, did you, madam,” she said. “You
couldn’t have. This was all your father’s doing. His schemes, his plots. And
you weren’t allowed knowledge of that. Why, you weren’t even allowed in
his rookery.”

Fayazi’s axiom gripped her mistress’s arm again.

“I will say nothing to you,” said Fayazi quietly.

“But when your father died, you had to take over his duties here. You
sent word to the other prime sons of the lineage, asking for guidance—and
they told you to burn the body and the evidence and suppress all
knowledge, fearing anything that might connect your father’s death to
Commander Blas would reveal what they had done to Oypat. You did as
they asked—and thus, you enabled the breach. And the deaths of all those
soldiers and people now lie upon your head.”

“No,” whispered Fayazi.

“And then things got so much more dangerous…For then the clan sent
their agent, didn’t they? Someone terrifying to do their dirty work and clean
up all this mess you’d made?”
Fayazi trembled under her veil, yet said nothing.

“They sent their twitch, of course,” said Ana. “And all you could do
was sit there. Sit there while the twitch went after Blas’s secretary. And then
that poor miller you’d hired for all that fernpaper—they killed him and left
him to rot in a basement. And then poor Nusis.”

“Dolabra!” said Vashta, alarmed. “What are you talking abou—”

“I wonder how many people your twitch has killed for your clan,” Ana
said. “Dozens? Hundreds? But you knew when they came, Madam Haza,
that you might be the next one they killed. For you’re distant from the elder
sons. Vulnerable. Unimportant. The twitch was here to make sure you
didn’t step out of line…and if all their plans here in Talagray fell to pieces,
it was you they intended to blame for it all and leave for the loop. Another
tidy ending to a horrid little story.”

Fayazi convulsed like she’d been slapped.

“Surely you’ve thought that,” whispered Ana. “Surely you’ve known
that’s what they planned. But… why don’t you ask her? Why don’t you go
ahead and ask your twitch right now?”

A loud, thundering silence.

“D-Dolabra?” said Vashta. “What are you…what…”

Ana turned her face to the axiom, who stared back at her with her cold,
dark eyes.

“For it’s you, isn’t it?” said Ana. “You’re no axiom. You’re the twitch.
And it is you who’s here to threaten Madam Haza’s life. And it’s you who
killed Immunis Nusis just last night.”

- The Tainted Cup, Chapter 37 pgs. 337-338