Ana asked Nusis the usual then: had she seen anyone unusual at the party, anyone dirty, or strange, or someone loitering near the fire?
“No,” said Nusis. “No, no. I saw nothing like that. If I had, I would have told you already.”
“Thank you…Next, I wish to inquire about a potential graft,” said Ana. “Are you aware there was a fire at the party?”
“Yes…I did hear about that. Something about a rug?”
“Correct.” She waved a hand at me. “Din here saw the fireplace and spied white scorch marks in the corner of the firebox. They had a curious aroma, yes, Din? A rather urinal tang?”
I cleared my throat. “Aptly put, ma’am.”
“And Kalista noted the smell was much stronger,” said Ana. “She said the whole hall smelled of goat’s piss after the flare—her words. I believe the woman is surprisingly well acquainted with goats, you know.” She grinned. “Are these phenomena in any way familiar to you, Immunis?”
Nusis sat up, and some of her perk returned to her, as if pleased to be back on known territory. “A urinal tang…That sounds like blackperch mushrooms.”
“And what are those?”
“They were a fire starter, suffused by the Apoths in the Rathras canton. They build up highly flammable deposits in their inner cores. They were eventually abandoned as fire starters and kindling, being as their fires were so unreliable. Some would create bursts and flares of heat. And the smell afterward was in no way desirable, of course…”
Ana went very still. “How long would it take for them to flare?”
“Oh, not long. Many would flare the second they touched flame. Another reason why they were unpopular fire starters—people would place them within a little nest of flaming kindling, and the next thing they knew their whole hand was alight.”
“So it would be immediate. An immediate reaction.”
“More or less, yes.”
Ana’s bearing was grave now, as if Nusis had just given her dreadful news. “I see,” she said quietly.
“Was this…this information not welcome, Immunis?” asked Nusis.
Ana was silent for a long while, before finally saying, “It was unexpected, I should say.”
“I see. But that is all I know. Is there any other way I can assist?”
“Actually, there is,” said Ana, coming alive again. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you about Oypat.”
Nusis balked, surprised. “Oh. Oypat? I thought I had talked of this to Signum Kol…”
“You did. But I wanted to ask you a very simple question.”
“Yes?”
“Why did the canton die, Nusis?”
“Oh. Well…the canton of Oypat perished,” she said slowly, “because the dappleglass spread too quickly for the Apoths and the Engineers to intervene. But that’s well known, of course.”
“But too quickly for what?” asked Ana. “What was the Empire doing to stop it?”
Nusis cleared her throat. “Well…here. I only know all this from a distance, mind, as I was a very junior officer at the time. But we Apoths sought to make a cure for the spread of dappleglass, to treat the contagion like it was a disease, neutralizing its ability to bloom within flesh or soil. We had to formulate this cure within weeks.”
“It must have been a preposterous task.”
“It was. The very idea was ridiculous, frankly. But then—rather miraculously—we appeared to be successful.”
Ana’s mouth fell open in shock. “Wait. You were? You mean you actually made a cure for dappleglass?”
“Possibly,” said Nusis, somewhat reluctantly. “That is a question of some controversy. The senior Apoths created a graft that held promising capabilities of neutralizing the contagion. Twenty little vials, all ready for testing and review. We simply had to get approval to scale it up and begin deploying it within Oypat.”
“Then why didn’t you?” asked Ana.
“Because, as I said, we needed approval. Namely, by all the Preservation Boards. The first rule of the Engineers and the Apoths—outside of Talagray, of course—is to do no harm. If you wish to intervene in the Empire, you must first prove that what you do will not damage anything else in the Empire. This is where the Preservation Boards step in, ensuring that the status quo will never be threatened.”
“And…what did the Preservation Boards do regarding Oypat?”
“They moved quickly. Or…they tried to. But the cantons that would have to grow the reagents for the cure…Well, they brought many concerns. They protested how creating these new reagents could lead to environmental issues with all their other reagents and agriculture. They demanded tests and studies, wanting to ensure that there was no commingling or mutagenic possibilities.”