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“Kaygi Haza was like many gentrymen in this fashion. He had a small circle of officers he met with, encouraged, and occasionally gave gifts to---and Jolgalgan was also one such officer. For how else could she have known of his bath? How else could she have so easily navigated the servants’ passageways, and known which door to use? The answer is, Kaygi Haza had brought her there before himself, likely many times—as a friend.” A languid wave of her hand, acknowledging her point. “Now that Jolgalgan was in the estate, she then used her knowledge and her altered vision to navigate the dark passageways without a light, ascending to the roof. And there, she delivered the killing blow, dropping the dappleglass into the boiler above the steam room. At that point, her goal here was accomplished. Jolgalgan rejoined the party and left with the throng. Kaygi Haza took his steams after the party—and then, sadly, he was to perish before the morning. [...] “That is a fascinating tale,” Fayazi said finally. “But you have not mentioned anything untoward or dangerous. You have given no indication, for example, of how the ten Engineers were also poisoned, if they were even at my house---nor how any of this might threaten me.” “I am glad you asked,” said Ana, grinning. “For that question confounded me for a goodish bit. Yet then I realized…We already knew that the poisoning of the Engineers was different from the deaths of both Kaygi Haza and Commander Blas. They died much later, at irregular times, and their blooms issued from different parts of their bodies. This suggests they were poisoned differently, too.” She turned her blindfolded face to me. “Din saw the answer, of course. He just didn’t know.” Everyone looked at me. I simply frowned, for I had no idea at all what she meant. “Madam Haza,” said Ana. “Am I correct in recalling that your father had a bejeweled ewer from which he enjoyed drinking wine?” Fayazi reluctantly said, “He did. He had several, in fact.” “I see. And did he often enjoy drinking wine,” asked Ana softly, “while he took his bath?” Lightning danced up my bones then, and the memory surfaced in my mind: there, in the old man’s bath, a stone ledge; and all along it, many faded red rings from many past wine cups. “He… he did…” said Fayazi “Then it’s as I thought,” said Ana. “On that very night, in his bath, Kaygi Haza enjoyed a cup of wine from his favorite ewer, right as the air was full of steam—and dappleglass spores. The ewer he drank from sat open to the air and was now tainted. And that same ewer was then used later at this secret meeting of Kaygi Haza’s favored Engineers, to pour the wine for all those young people who had come to indulge themselves. And then they drank. They drank, unaware that whatever poured forth from such a vessel now carried death itself—inevitable, painful, and awful.” A HORRIFIED SILENCE hung over the courtroom. “Truly?” asked Vashta, aghast. “Do you truly think this is how such a tragedy began?” “I am almost completely certain,” said Ana. “That would explain why it took so much longer for the infections to—what is the word—to bloom. For the Engineers had likely consumed fewer spores than Kaygi Haza himself, and those who drank more wine died fastest. But none had sat and soaked in the spores and breathed them in, like the elder Haza did. I also suspect the spores succeed more in the lungs than the stomach. But still they succeeded, eventually. And all ten perished.” - The Tainted Cup, Chapter 37 pgs. 330-332
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