At the Oath Gazette, Roman Kitt struggled to write on his first day as columnist and felt the newsroom empty without Iris Winnow. An editor hinted at Iris’s absence, intensifying Roman’s sense of hollowness. After an unproductive day, he resolved to confront his father about his engagement.

At home, Roman told Mr. Kitt he would not marry Elinor Little. Mr. Kitt mocked Roman’s wish for freedom, deriding Roman’s past desire to study literature and implying Roman’s interest in a “lowborn” colleague. He revealed he had Roman followed and crudely suggested Roman could marry Elinor but keep other affairs, so long as there were no children. Roman erupted, defending his colleague’s dignity.

Mr. Kitt then unveiled a crate of forearm-length metal canisters, hinting Elinor and her father helped create them and implying their use in the coming war when Dacre reached Oath. He framed the devices as a path to advantage when Enva’s allies fell, exposing his opportunism. Roman condemned the plan as evil and refused involvement, but Mr. Kitt pressured him with family duty and guilt over Roman’s late sister, Del, pushing Roman into silence and retreat.

Back in his room, Roman found no new letter from Iris. Fearing his father’s surveillance and uncertain how much Mr. Kitt knew, Roman hid a shoebox of Iris’s letters beneath a loose floorboard, vowing to protect her in a way he had failed to protect Del.

Elsewhere, Iris entered the chaotic basement newsroom of the Inkridden Tribune seeking work as a war correspondent. She met editor Helena Hammond, who interrogated her motives. Iris argued that Oath wrongly believed itself safe and that reporting from the front would prepare the city. Helena, impressed by Iris’s resolve, hired her immediately.

Helena had Iris sign a broad waiver accepting the risks of war reporting and issued her a press-marked jumpsuit, boots, supplies, and a leather bag. She outlined procedures: Iris would travel by train to Avalon Bluff near the front, lodge with Marisol Torres, work under a different chancellor’s laws, file fact-based stories and soldier accounts every sixth day via the train conductor, and request supplies by return.

Upon seeing Iris’s typewriter, Helena identified it as the Third Alouette—one of three rare, possibly enchanted machines commissioned by Richard Stone for his ailing daughter Alouette and her two friends. Learning Iris’s grandmother was Daisy Elizabeth Winnow, Helena connected the provenance and mused about the other machines. Iris privately realized the letters she exchanged were likely linked by the typewriters, not wardrobes.

Helena offered that the museum would pay a fortune for the Alouette, but Iris refused to sell. When asked for her byline, Iris chose to publish as Iris Winnow; Helena hinted she might suggest something better, then sent Iris to change for immediate departure on the next train.