Cantor Samek

Samek is a Cantor of the Holy Terran Chantry and an operative of its Choir -- the covert organ that investigates forbidden technologies and maintains the Imperium's monopoly on biological weapons. She is identifiable by the Phoenician letter tattooed on her brow, a code designation used in place of a personal name, and is described as hairless, pale, and black-clad.

On Forum, she twice confronts Hadrian: first intercepting him at the Porta Prince Arthur terminal to question him about Lorian's emergence, then approaching him on the steps of the Sun King's Hall with blindfolded cathars, where she injects him with dispholide poison -- a killing blow.

When Hadrian subsequently returns to Forum under constant surveillance, Samek encounters him again and recognizes him without any prior introduction in that context -- an impossibility unless he is genuinely himself and not a clone or replica. She understands that she is witnessing a miracle. She watches him from the shadows at the starport terminal with an expression of holy terror rather than hatred, and he offers her his smallest smile before turning away.