After Iris and Attie disappear through the café lavatory door, Tobias opens it and finds only an ordinary room. Forced to accept that they are gone, at least for now, he returns to the table with Mr. Attwood and remembers Attie’s request that he watch over her family. As bombs strike nearby and the children panic, Tobias takes out the wooden toy cars he brought from home and starts a game, using them to distract Attie’s siblings and steady the family in the middle of the attack.

Elsewhere, Helena sits alone in the Inkridden Tribune office as the bombing begins. While cracks spread across the ceiling, the power fails, and Oath starts to come apart around her, Helena drinks whiskey, lights another cigarette, and feeds paper into her typewriter. With the city collapsing, she chooses to write for herself, suggesting a final act of personal truth or witness.

On a hill outside the city, Marisol stands with Keegan after the army has withdrawn to shelter in a valley. Marisol watches twenty-five eithrals bomb Oath and sees smoke and ruin swallow the southern half of the city. Overcome, she can only say Keegan’s name, and while Keegan holds her, Marisol realizes the war has changed them too deeply for life to ever return to what it was; Oath’s fall will become another permanent wound.

At the same time, Forest guides Sarah through the chaotic streets after finding her at the Gazette. Sarah insists on trying to reach her father, but the trams have stopped, the neighborhood is far away, and Forest is weakened because he missed his medicine and has already given away his shelter guide. When a bomb destroys the next street, Forest spots an open house and runs for it with Sarah. As they near the door, Forest sees an enormous winged shadow overhead; then a blinding, star-like explosion erupts just before they can reach safety, with Forest still refusing to let go of Sarah’s hand.