Morning in the imperial war council chamber after the failed kitchen assassination. Candlelight, maps, and trays of sealed evidence make the room feel triumphant and dangerous.

The celebration turns into a new order. Aune is made responsible for monitoring Prince Edran's correspondence.

Aune translates Edran's official letters and finds them aggressively harmless.

A separate military dispatch reveals Lucan's regiment is near the southern road, making the frontier intelligence personal before Aune has even heard it.

Inside the confessional, Aune grants the seal and Edran becomes confessor rather than court prisoner.

Edran gives Aune the location of hidden siege engines in plain, usable detail.

Aune challenges Edran's motive, and he explains that the weapons belong to his uncle, Duke Malrec.

Edran reveals his hatred of Malrec is personal and political. Aune understands just enough to hate that he may be telling the truth.

Edran shows he knows Lucan's regiment is near the southern road, turning the confession into a direct pressure point on Aune.

Edran apologizes, but Aune refuses to absolve the cruelty of his method.

Back in the council translation office, a captured Tarsen supply letter gives Aune a legal path around the seal.

Aune identifies the ambiguous term and explains enough of the language rule for the reader to understand her loophole.

Aune makes the tiny mistranslation, aware that it may save Lucan without ever repeating Edran's confession.

Aune presents the translation to Marshal Vaury, who demands practical reasoning rather than theological excuses.

Vaury decides to act on the translation and sends a patrol to the abandoned glassworks without Aune ever naming the confession.

The patrol report confirms the siege engines were found exactly where Edran said they would be.

The council praises Aune's translation while Oren marks the success as luck worth investigating.

Aune returns to her desk and faces the emotional cost of saving the patrol route through a loophole.