Roman wakes at his desk in the room assigned to him at Avalon Bluff and finds a typed page on the floor near the wardrobe. The note asks three intimate questions about his forgotten life: the name of a pet snail, his middle name, and his favorite season. Roman checks the wardrobe for any sign of magic, finds nothing unusual, and is left unsettled by how deeply the questions affect him. When Lieutenant Shane bursts in and orders him to pack because they are leaving immediately, Roman first throws the note away, then retrieves it because he cannot bear to lose it.

Downstairs, Roman notices that the parlor door leading to the realm below stands open. He watches Dacre emerge from the shadowed passage and lock the door with a key hidden on a chain around his neck, revealing another sign of Dacre's secret power and control. Dacre tells Roman that he will ride with him and that they are heading east, which leaves Roman uneasy about what comes next.

Elsewhere, Iris comes out of her room ready to depart and finds Forest waiting at the table. Forest is upset by her decision to leave, but Iris reminds him that she accepted his own choice to go to war and expects the same respect in return. After a strained silence, Forest asks Iris to keep writing to him, then places their mother's golden locket around her neck and insists that she wear it at all times. Iris realizes he is giving her more than a keepsake: the locket once helped Forest remember himself and break free from Dacre's influence, so she promises not to remove it until she comes home.

On the lorry ride out of Avalon Bluff, Roman watches the ruined town recede and mourns the truth he wanted to write about its destruction. He questions Dacre about the middle initial in his byline, and Dacre explains that Roman used to work for the Oath Gazette and came from a prestigious family that supported him. Roman almost shows Dacre the mysterious note, but an instinctive warning stops him, and he offers his unfinished article instead. Dacre dismisses the article until they reach camp while reading the Inkridden Tribune, and Roman realizes Dacre may be taking his direction from that paper. By the end of the chapter, Roman keeps both the article and the note to himself, protecting a small piece of his lost identity from Dacre.