CMU Chapter 04

Chapter Four: Third Treasure

In the smoky haze of Âbromô’s smithy, Poleen Juvukis stands before a grimy mirror, her reflection a stranger in a borrowed dress, as the hulking smith wrestles with the lock of her mysterious cigar case, lured by the promise of three cigars. The air is thick with the aftermath of her mother’s arrest—smoke from the torched Juvukis’ Bloom lingers in the sky, and townsfolk clamor to douse the flames—but Gibelê, her wary ally, insists on shielding Âbromô from the lethal truth tied to the box. When the lock yields, Âbromô’s childlike glee unveils a dozen cigars, each adorned with a silver ring and a sun-stamped wax seal, nestled in silk. Yet Gibelê’s deft hands reveal the box’s true secrets: a false bottom concealing iron filings and eight gnarled indilus roots, a rare medicinal treasure controlled by the Notoholis Aprelêu. Poleen’s fragmented memories flare—her mother boiling the root, Gibelê weeping over a lost wife—revealing why she and her brother risked everything to steal it from Vitolêô, defying Ezeldu’s warnings. The roots, uncut and capable of being grown, threaten the guild’s monopoly, a motive for the noose that claimed Benê and nearly Poleen.

The mood shifts when Âbromô lights a cigar, its applewood scent turning acrid as he stumbles, eyes rolling, overtaken by a euphoric haze. Gibelê snuffs the cigar and slices it open, exposing crumbled gray leaves—not the healing honêsh but donu, a forbidden euphoric tied to the Boboru, capable of visions and death. The revelation unravels a sinister plot: the cigars, laced with the Devil’s Smoke, were a decoy to smuggle the indilus, framing Ezeldu as a smuggler if caught. Poleen’s mind races—why would Humeric tû Yulêz, a man of ill repute, entangle her family in such a deadly scheme? Gibelê urges her to destroy the box, warning of the gallows awaiting anyone caught with donu, but Poleen sees it as her only leverage to free her mother. Defiant, she presses Gibelê for answers about the box’s origins, her resolve hardened by the memory of her own hanging. As Âbromô staggers back, dazed but alive, Poleen clutches the locked case, determined to trace the trail of death and deception back to Vitolêô, where the Notoholis’s secrets—and her mother’s fate—await.

CMU Chapter 03 — Wait of Survival
CMU Chapter 05 — Predator Street

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