On a sweltering summer night, the black market arcana merchant Ilher Saligari is confronted by an agent of the Ministry. A memory-storing alchemical device he created is a key piece of evidence in a murder that may implicate the criminal underground. But Ilher has already fenced it, and the Ministry won't care for that answer. Now he needs to get the device and solve the murder while evading both the Ministry and the criminal syndicate. This short story is a prequel to the novel The Alchemy Dirge.