Amid the violently renewing years of the New Sun, Victory Smith drives Sherkaner Underhill and Hrunkner Unnerby along Pride of Accord toward Lands Command. Smith’s high speed and the mountain switchbacks keep her security detail straining to keep up. Unnerby deduces Smith’s elevated status in Intelligence.

During the trip, Smith and Underhill reveal they are married and expecting, startling Unnerby, who struggles with traditional norms. Their banter shifts to Underhill’s sweeping ideas about technology and infrastructure as storms close in, forcing slower progress.

Smith initiates a Strategic Secret briefing: Underhill argues atomic power could sustain waking cities through the Dark, keeping roads clear and civilization active. Smith highlights worst-case risks—city-destroying weapons and an inevitable arms race if one nation moves first. Unnerby is swayed by the potential yet chilled by the danger; Smith admits she pushed the program despite doubts.

They reach Nigh’t’ Deepness, refuel at a back-road kerosene pump where Underhill chats up the proprietor, then drive to a coastal promontory. The trio pauses at a sweeping view of stranded icebergs and a washed-out road, emblematic of the New Sun’s upheaval. With a new storm inbound, Smith forgoes lodging beyond the ravine and decides to bivouac with her security team.