Before the Shattering, Ranni, then an Empyrean candidate to succeed Marika, committed an act of cosmic theft. She would not acquiesce to the Two Fingers, and she claims the whole deed for herself: 'I stole a fragment of the Rune of Death, and used it to forge the godslaying black knives through fearsome rite. I did it all.' The fragment came from Maliketh, the Black Blade, the shadowbound beast whose purpose, says his Remembrance, was to be 'a vessel to lock away Destined Death'. After the robbery, Maliketh 'bound the blade within his own flesh, such that none might ever rob Death again'.

Ranni's forging is written as a rite. The blade is 'oddly misshapen', and the assassin's charms modelled after it recall 'the darkly gleaming blades used in the Night of Black Knives'; the ritual performed on it 'imbued it with the power of the stolen Rune of Death'. Theft and imbuing fall on the same night: the Black Knifeprint has the fragment taken from Maliketh and put into the assassins' daggers on the Night of the Black Knives, and Tiche imbues hers 'on the night of the plot' before slaying Godwyn. The wielders are described as women, 'rumored to be Numen who had close ties with Marika herself', led by a ringleader named Alecto; who chose them is not written. Deathroot calls the result 'the first Death of a demigod', and the Cursemark of Death adds that the Prince of Death 'perished in soul alone'. The mark itself, says the Knifeprint, 'hides the truth of the conspiracy'.

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WeaponBlack Knife

Dagger once belonging to one of the assassins who murdered Godwyn the Golden on the Night of the Black Knives. A ritual performed on the oddly misshapen blade imbued it with the power of the stolen Rune of Death.

Key ItemBlack Knifeprint

On the Night of the Black Knives, someone stole a fragment of Death from Maliketh, the Black Blade, and imbued its power into the assassins' daggers. This mark is evidence of the ritual, and hides the truth of the conspiracy.