While recovering in a hospital bed in ruined Oath, Roman asks for the Inkridden Tribune each morning because it is the only paper still being printed. He studies the lists of the dead and missing and follows the new chancellor’s war trials. In the paper, Roman learns that his father, Ronald Kitt, has been convicted for his role in the transport of hazardous gas and sentenced to seventy years in prison, and that Dr. Herman Little and Elinor Little have received life sentences for creating the gas and bombs used in the war.

Roman’s physical condition remains fragile. On his fourth morning in the hospital, the patient beside him dies from lung scarring caused by the gas, reminding Roman that everyone on the floor is suffering from the same injury that may also kill him. Even so, Roman keeps reading the paper, driven more by the need for news than by hunger or comfort.

Then Roman finds two names in the list of the dead: Sarah Prindle and Forest Winnow. The news hits him with the force of old grief, reviving the pain of losing his sister years earlier. Because Iris has now lost her brother as well, Roman immediately tries to leave the hospital to find her.

Roman tears out his intravenous needle, throws off his blankets, and heads for the doors, but a security guard stops him. He argues with the guard and the doctor, insisting that he needs to see his wife. The doctor refuses to release him early, warns that Roman must worry about more than his lungs, and denies him special permission during the trials. When Roman realizes rage will not free him, he takes the doctor’s response as a challenge and forces himself to comply.

Two days later, the doctor discharges Roman with prescriptions and strict orders to rest. In a soft rain, he walks through the shattered city toward Iris’s flat, reflecting on how empty Oath has become and wondering if Enva still lingers near the storm. Before he reaches the flat, Iris calls out to him from the street; she has been waiting for him outside the hospital. Roman runs to her, and they embrace in the rain, their reunion mixing relief, sorrow, and their familiar tenderness.