The Sublime Porte had come at the design of Hamit the Quartz of Damascus to murder the Vizier-i Aezam — Mustafa Pasha — at the stroke of midnight, and so to shatter the peace talks then in train between the Empire and Egypt. Rather than merely guard against the blow, the agents resolved to turn the vizier himself into the bait, and to take Hamit alive. To that end the real vizier was brought in quietly, disguised as an ordinary prisoner and lodged in a high-security cell, whilst a decoy was escorted with a moderate show of fanfare to Yedikule Fortress to draw Hamit's eye. The true identity of the prisoner was withheld even from the Mansur Enforcers, lest some mole among them carry the plan abroad.
Roughly a day was spent in fortifying the place. They recruited a powerful mage prisoner held under magic-dampening restraints, meaning to loosen those restraints during the assault so that he might act in their favour and afterward claim he had merely escaped in the confusion. Hired fighters were positioned about the fortress — three guards in the tabled area, three in the sleeping quarters, two at the door of the Royal Cell, and one at the high-security cells — and veteran men disguised as prisoners were set within the cells to form a concealed line of defence. For the rest, they reinforced the sewer entrances with chains and strewed caltrops and ball bearings there, emplaced a sleep-gas grenade at a key chokepoint, rigged a falling net, warded a principal entrance with an Arcane Lock, sealed the upper tower access, and — choosing men over machinery — set aside such lesser contrivances as acid traps in favour of the personnel already in place.
Under cover of night Hamit and his crew came upon Yedikule and found the exterior quiet, only a few guards near the walls, and chose to enter by the main gate and the ground-level way rather than by the sewers. The peace did not last. Hamza kicked in the door of the external barracks and set to a brutal melee, Ziya and others lending ranged fire, and several of the hired guards were killed; a guard fumbling with his own sword contrived to spring a dart trap upon himself; a gunshot rang out and roused the whole fortress; and the attackers fought their way through the ground floor and cleared the central towers. It was then that the recruited mage, his restraints loosed as arranged, loosed a Cone of Cold that gravely wounded several of the assailants — before turning invisible and fleeing up a staircase and away into the city, abandoning the defenders he had been meant to aid.
Pressing into the prison level, the attackers came upon the veteran fighters hidden among the cells in the guise of prisoners, and a fireball scorched the corridor as the close-quarters fighting broke out in earnest; as their hurts mounted, the attackers drank down potion after potion to keep to their feet. Hamit and Ziya drove on toward the Royal Cell to reach the decoy vizier, but unexpected reinforcements of guards arrived, and the attackers began to weigh a retreat through the sewers. In the end Hamit was taken, captured before the diplomatic meeting could convene; and his memory of ever having encountered Jean-Zera Mongé was struck from him with Bergüzar's memory scroll — the very magic that had before been used upon Osman Hamdi Bey.
By the hour of the meeting, then, the thing was done. In an antechamber adjoining the formal hall, Jean-Zera Mongé, Miray Ruba Mata Biru, Gizem Faruki, Sidra al-Najjar and Osman Hamdi Bey awaited the proceedings, and the Padişah — the Sultan — Padishah Abd-ul Mejid announced to the assembled diplomats that Hamit the Quartz of Damascus had been taken and would soon be put to question. But the temper of the room turned in an instant when Kavalan — Kavalan Pasha, a figure until then obscure — rose, drew a hidden blade, and in one swift motion opened Hamit's throat. In the same breath he cast a spell upon the dying man, so that Hamit's eyes glowed a pale blue, and worked a magic near to Speak with Dead to question him in his last moments.
Kavalan gave out that he suspected Hamit's memories had been tampered with, and that he had killed him precisely to circumvent the effect and to probe for the hand of the palace in it. The public killing and the magical interrogation both threw suspicion upon Topkapi Palace of foul play, and left the talks to continue in a strained and wary state, with Kavalan turning the whole grim spectacle to his own leverage. The assembled diplomats were left uneasy; and an unidentified palace official quit the negotiations in unseemly haste — a departure marked by the company and by Abd-ul Mejid alike. The balance of power, so lately steadied, was set trembling again, and what this brutal act had set loose would echo through the halls of the palace and well beyond them.