Page 78 of A Trade of Blood

“Yet we have one individual moststronglyimplicated,” Ana growled. “For as the killer is using the web, and since they seem to be using these seams in the forest to get about, all that points to one man in particular…”

“Burilis Burav,” I sighed. “Yes.”

“Too bad the bastard’s dead!” snarled Ana. “We cannotinterrogate a pile of ashes! I suppose he didn’t have any preferred agents, or servants, or kin who did his awful deeds for him?”

Fotia shook her head. “Burav was a controlling man, I was told. He let his family do no more than spend his money—which they were all quite content to do.”

“And, Commander Tauri, I presume you’ve made no headway with Burav’s vault?”

“My people are spread thinner as this investigation continues,” said Tauri. “So fewer and fewer can focus on the vault and the mansion. They did succeed in removing one segment of plating, however.”

“And?”

“Behind it was more plating. This bit much thicker.”

“By hell!” fumed Ana. “How I fucking hate riddles! And I can’t help but feel that Burav’s vault holds something very nasty. Or dangerous. Or both! For I have become convinced that something is quiterottenin the Burav legacy…” She fumbled behind her and pulled out a stack of parchments, her greasy fingers leaving behind a ghost of their prints. “…and Burilis Burav’s service record with the Empire suggests I am right.”

She cleared her throat, pressed her greasy digits to the parchment, and began to read.

—

“Burilis Burav!” she began.“Born in the year 1067, here in the canton of Sapirdad—born in that very house that burned down yesterday, in fact. At the time of his birth, the Burav gentryclan was estimated to be the 131st richest in all of the Empire, and thus possessed wealth and power that few common folk could ever imagine—and yet, in the eyes of the Burav clan, they were in a state of profoundpoverty.For some forty years previously, they had been the64thwealthiest clan in the Empire. A steep drop, for them! And the cause of this drop is obvious.”

I glanced at Fotia, whose eyes remained fixed on the floor.

“The Armentas,” I said.

“Correct!” said Ana. “It was in 1019 that the Senate of the Sanctum passed the reforms that would come to be known as the Great Flourishing, allowing gentryclans and landowners increased access to Apoth reagents and alterations. The Armentas made great use of this and created cattle lines and herds with no peer in this world. They grew powerful and bought up nearly all the lands about the Burav spreads. They choked them out, suffocated them. By the time of Burilis Burav’s childhood, his family’s holdings were barely a tenth of what they’d owned at their height. Thus, in 1080, the Buravs did the unthinkable—they placed young Burilis in the Imperial Iyalets and had him begin the process to become an Apoth at the tender age of twelve. So great was their suffering, you see, that they had deigned to permit aprime sonbecome aservantto the Empire! What a cruel fate! How awful it must have been. Truly, I weep for them!”

Tauri yawned. I shot Ana a glare. “Your biases are known, ma’am,” I said. “We may skip the dramatics.”

“If you wish, Dinios,” she said. “But I highlight this turn of fate because I don’t quite think that they did it just for the income. I believe they intended to use Burilis’s position as one ofinfluence.They had been undermined by the arts of the Apoths—thus, they planned to master them and use them to regain what had been lost.” She turned her head to Tauri. “And how queer it is, sir, that Burilis Burav eventually transferred to the Orbiis! And, far stranger, the environment he was assigned to watch over was none other than the land of his birth! The very place where his family hadlostso much valuable environment. That seems to be…well, quite a fucking conflict of interest, really!”

“It is much noted,” Tauri said dourly, “that the gentry wielded outsized influence in the Iyalets just after the Great Flourishing. Often to unwise ends. It was unquestionably a conflict of interest, one that would never be permitted today—but we’ve no evidence he ever acted directly to aid his family.”

“Many thought as much,” said Ana. “But you yourself told Din that when Burav left the Orbiis, it was under a—what was it, Din?”

My eyes fluttered as I summoned the memory. “Undera cloud of suspicion and dislike,ma’am,” I said. I gave Tauri an apologetic glance.

“This was due to bureaucratic maneuvering,” said Tauri. “Or so I was told. I know only what is still said of him.”

“But I have his full record here,” said Ana, “and can say much more! Burilis Burav did a great deal of bureaucratic maneuvering. His hand shows most clearly in who he suggested the Orbiisturn downfor positions in Sapirdad—and in the fact that those who did not listen to his suggestions were often dismissed for very vague reasons! There is only one commonality among the officers that Burav was attempting to keep out—they all had extensive experience in arboreal alterations.”

There was a beat of silence.

“He did not want anyone who’d studied augmented trees…” said Tauri.

“Because he didn’t want anyone studying the forest?” asked Fotia. “What was he worried they’d find?”

“Or,” I said, thinking, “ifhewas the one managing the forest…then he could never be challenged?”

“Spot on, Din!” sang Ana. “Throughout his tenure, Burilis Burav fought like mad to control management of the ancient, altered forest, and he devoted enormous efforts to making sure his position would never be contested! And that isverystrange, yes? Not a lot of money in that awful tangle of trees. I myself cannot guess, but…I do find one bit of timing very notable. For after overseeing the administration of the forest for nine years, he left the Orbiis—and then, suddenly, he announced to all the world that he had stumbled across a veryunusualstrain of neuro-fungus.”

“The guiding web,” sighed Tauri miserably.

“Indeed!” said Ana. “That was some thirty-one years ago now. Burav claimed he had come across a population of drokha-cats that had thrived next to a small oxbow lake created by the River Mavi. This oxbow lake, he said, had become heavily infected by the guiding web—not unusual, as the unaltered fungus occurs here naturally—but the cats had lived next to these waters for so long, with the fungus preying predominantly upon them, that it hadshiftedin veryunusual ways.Usefulways, even, he claimed. The cats, and the oxbow lake, were regrettably washed away in the wet season of 1099—or so he reported. Thus, the Apoths could not study the population directly, but…Burilis Burav had so very luckilysaveda specimen of the fungus. And he had done more than that! He had experimented upon it. Bred it. Trained it.Perfectedit, one might say. He believed the Apoths could potentially refine it even further, so that it could condition and control any population of animals.” Ana made a flourish with her hand. “And despite the dubiousness of this story, the Empire did so greatly rejoice to hear it.”

“They did?” said Fotia. “Why?”