“Are you not aware,” Ana asked, “that Commander Blas died in the same way as your father?”
“I was told that Commander Blas fell to contagion,” said Fayazi, shocked. “This was as it was reported to me. The manner of contagion was not mentioned.”
“You were not informed by your own housekeeper, Madam Gennadios,” Ana said, “that the groundskeeper at the property had collaborated with an assassin to kill the commander?”
Fayazi’s face was the picture of vapid astonishment. “This information would have been referred to my father,” she said, “but not to me. I do not even know who this Gennadios is.”
“And no one in your household, and none of your clan administrators, informed you that your father and Blas died in the exact same fashion?”
“We were in containment,” she said. “And I was deep in grief. I did not have the knowledge or the resources to respond, perhaps, as I should have.”
I glanced down. Ana’s knuckles were white, her fingernails digging into her palms.
She nodded curtly. “Mm-hm. And what is the current state of your father’s body?”
“He was cremated, as is our custom,” Fayazi said. “His ashes wait in our hall to be returned to our ancestral home, in the first ring. I intend to accompany its return for the funerary rites within a week.”
“You burned him. Immediately.”
“Of course,” she said, blinking sorrowfully. “That is my prerogative as his issue.”
Ana’s fists were trembling now. “You are now aware, I take it, that several Engineers have perished to this same contagion?”
“I believe,” said Fayazi sadly, “that Commander Hovanes suggested such…”
“Are you aware that we have evidence suggesting these Engineers were poisoned at your estate? Likely on the same night as your father? Presumably, now, poisoned at the same time?”
“We…we had a social event on that evening,” said Fayazi, shocked. “Many people attended. But I have heard nothing indicating our guests suffered any sign of contagion. And I had no idea that there had been any other poisonings.” She gestured at Vashta. “This was, apparently, kept secret to preserve order.”
“Would those guests have included a Signum Misik Jilki?” asked Ana. “Or a Signum Ginklas Loveh?”
Again, the engraver whispered in Fayazi’s ear.
“We are unfamiliar with these names,” Fayazi said.
Ana listed the rest of the dead Engineers. Fayazi’s engraver shook his head to each one—including Jolgalgan’s.
“Then perhaps you can tell me, madam,” said Ana, “why several of those Engineers possessed reagents keys to your gates?”
Fayazi was appalled. “I’ve no idea! I…I would assume they were stolen. Have you investigated these Engineers? Is it possible it was they who snuck in during the night, and killed my father?”
A long silence stretched on, Ana’s blindfolded face fixed in an expression of grim frustration, while Fayazi insipidly stared back.
“So,” said Ana. “Just to summarize, here—your position is that you were utterly ignorant of Commander Blas’s death at one of your properties, so when your father also died of this horrifying contagion, you had no idea that this was the second murder of this sort. You then burned his body and put the whole of your estate into containment, and due to this and the chaos of the breach, you abstained from notifying any imperial officials of your father’s suspicious death—until now. Nor do you know anything about the Engineers who were likely poisoned at your estate on that very same night, or how they happened to come into possession of reagents keys allowing them access to your properties. Is that the sum of it?”
The two Sublimes stared at Ana coldly. Fayazi’s face worked as she tried to process all this. “I…believe that is all correct.”
“I see!” said Ana, nodding. “I just have one more question.”
“Of course.”
“What color was the clay?”
Fayazi blinked, confused. “Clay? What clay?”
“The clay you must have stuck in your eyes and ears,” said Ana, grinning, “to remain so amazingly fucking ignorant of everything about you.”
Fayazi’s eyes widened very slightly, but otherwise she did not react.
Vashta jumped to her feet. “Immunis!” she bellowed.
“Yes, ma’am?” said Ana politely.
“In there!” snapped Vashta. She pointed at the door to the arbiter’s chambers. “Now!”