With his memories restored, Roman also feels the full return of the pain from his old wounds. In private, he reflects that Dacre did not truly heal him after the Bluff; instead, Dacre only patched him together enough to keep him useful, obedient, and dependent. Roman begins to understand that Dacre has likely done the same to others, deceiving them into thinking they are whole while deliberately leaving them broken.

Roman hides these thoughts by typing them in secret and then burning the pages. Even so, his worsening symptoms—shortness of breath, nausea, headaches, and a limp—make him fear what the gas and Dacre’s partial healing have done to his body and how long he might live if he survives the war. He forces those worries aside and goes to Dacre’s office for his daily propaganda work.

When Roman arrives, Dacre is already unsettled and immediately asks him, "Tell me of Iris E. Winnow." Roman realizes Dacre has seen Iris’s article in the Inkridden Tribune, which prints the myth Roman once sent her about Enva and Dacre. Roman recognizes that the piece exposes a truth Dacre wants hidden: Dacre’s weakness is Enva and the love he could never possess.

Afraid this may be a test or the beginning of Dacre discovering their connection, Roman lies. He pretends to remember Iris only vaguely and dismisses her as unimportant, even speaking cruelly about her to protect her. Dacre insists the article spreads a dangerous falsehood and orders Roman to write the Gazette's rebuttal, presenting Dacre’s version of events to the people of Oath.

Before they can get far into the dictated response, Lieutenant Shane bursts in with urgent news from Captain Landis: Dacre’s forces have found the grave of Luz Skyward, the god of harvest and rain. Dacre pointedly identifies the grave for Roman and then orders him to come see it, interrupting the article and pulling Roman into a new, ominous development.