Dinios Kol, assistant to Investigator Ana Dolabra, visits a very fine mansion, belonging to an extremely wealthy and powerful family. He was sent there because a death had occurred. And not just any death, but one that sounds impossible: a tree has spontaneously grown from the dead man.

Din is an engraver, someone biologically altered to remember perfectly everything that he experiences and recall this data at any time. Ana, the investigator he serves, is one of the more unusual fictional detectives. Among her other idiosyncrasies, she often wears a red blindfold, so as not to be overwhelmed by her senses. For similar reasons, she only rarely leaves her house, relying on Din’s altered abilities to provide her with necessary evidence. She has recently been appointed to the Outer Rim of the Empire, and she is catastrophically bored.

But a death is an excellent cure for boredom. Ana quickly determines that the engineer’s death was not a strange and horrible accident, but rather a very deliberate murder. And then a leviathan, having made its way up from the depths, breaches the Empire’s walls. In the wake of this, it becomes clear that the murderer has struck again, not only killing multiple people this time, but also weakening those protective walls at the beginning of the wet season, the time when even more leviathans will venture forth to try them.

As if murders and monsters aren’t enough, Din has secrets of his own, ones he is desperate to keep from Ana. But as he watches her astounding skills, their discovery seems more and more likely.

THE FALLEN MASTER: In the imperial town of Temir, one of the greatest metalmasters is found dead at his forge. Suspicion instantly falls on his apprentice Olsev, whose powerful cerebral augmentations—and neurodivergence—make her an astonishing genius at craftsmanship, yet difficult to understand. Olsev’s pleas of innocence go unheeded by the authorities—until the Imperial Iudex takes an interest in her case and sends two very unusual detectives to investigate: Ana Dolabra and Dinios Kol. Caught between the machinations of the Empire, her colleagues, and the powerful interests of the gentry class, Olsev must decide if she can trust these detectives—and if her master’s death might hide a truth too terrible for her to bear.