Asks about spoiled rites of reference marks (9)
I believe the answer is:
asterisks
'marks' is the definition.
(asterisking is a kind of marking)
'asks about spoiled rites' is the wordplay.
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'spoiled' indicates anagramming the letters.
'rites' with letters rearranged gives 'teris'.
'asks' going around 'teris' is 'ASTERISKS'.
'of reference' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for asterisks that I've seen is " Star-shaped characters in printing".)