In springtime Oath, Iris Winnow walks to the Inkridden Tribune with the uneasy sense that someone is following her. She wonders if it is her brother Forest, whose wartime experiences have left him distrustful and changed, and she passes familiar places tied to her old life with Roman. On a shortcut, Iris sees fresh graffiti reading Gods belong in their graves, another sign of growing hostility toward the divines and of the tension spreading through the city.

At the Tribune, Attie quietly asks whether Iris has learned anything about Roman C. Kitt, who is still missing after Avalon Bluff. Iris has received no replies to her telegrams, and she is still haunted by both Roman’s disappearance and the loss of her magical typewriter. Helena Hammond then gives Iris a letter from Marisol, who says she is safe, mourns Roman’s disappearance, and invites Iris and Attie to visit River Down; the letter briefly comforts Iris but also sharpens her grief over how recently she and Roman were married.

The office falls silent when Chancellor Verlice arrives with guards and requests a private meeting with Helena. After he leaves, Helena summons Iris and Attie and explains that Verlice is furious about their articles on Clover Hill and Avalon Bluff, dismissing their eyewitness reporting as fearmongering and propaganda. He also blames the Tribune for the recent anti-god vandalism, including the slogan painted on his own driveway. Helena refuses to back down and, because she believes Dacre is pushing east and Oath may soon be threatened, asks Iris and Attie to seriously consider returning to the front in some new reporting capacity.

Taking Helena’s advice to think, Iris parts from Attie and visits the riverside park from her childhood, where memories of Forest and Roman leave her raw and unsteady. She walks home through a storm and finds her apartment door standing open. Inside, an unfamiliar older man is waiting in the flat; from the moment Iris sees him, she understands he is dangerous, and the chapter ends as he confronts her with a chilling demand: he wants to know where his son is.