A Drop of Corruption

Because of the grafts he has taken, Din experiences the following day’s events with a sense of surreality. Din meets Ghrelin on the docks. Ghrelin advises him that the ship that will transport the marrow several days hence will travel through this route before heading toward the Shroud. Ghrelin speaks vaguely of the experience of being an augur, but when Din asks if his memories have been altered, Ghrelin insists this practice would be reserved “for secrets far more dreadful than any found here,” an idea that horrifies Din (340).

As they approach the Shroud, Ghrelin points out examples of his work, such as rebuilding an arch after a storm. Din realizes that the Shroud itself is alive, built out of leviathans’ cells. Din regards the Shroud with awe and horror: In order to fight leviathans, the Empire built something that is like a leviathan itself.

As Din and Ghrelin are led through the Shroud, Din watches Apoths prepare the shipment of reagents that will accompany the marrow. The undertaking is enormous, and the cost monumental, though Ghrelin comments that the largest cost of learning to transport the marrow is in the deaths of those who perished during experiments.