Roman is unable to focus on his work at the Gazette following Iris’s resignation. When he attempts to end his engagement with Elinor Little, his father expresses disappointment and reveals that he has acquired bombs from the Little family, which he believes will help to keep them safe whenever the war reaches Oath. Roman is disgusted by the bombs, which will undoubtedly harm many innocent bystanders.

Meanwhile, Iris visits Helena Hammond at the Inkridden Tribune, and Helena hires her as a war correspondent and asks her to begin immediately. Upon inspecting Iris’s supplies, Helena discovers that she possesses one of the three Alouette typewriters in existence. She tells Iris that they were created by a wealthy man named Richard Stone. When his daughter, Alouette, became ill with tuberculosis, she needed a way to keep in touch with her two friends, for they could no longer visit in person due to her illness. The three magical typewriters are capable of transporting letters among each other. While Alouette’s typewriter was donated to a museum after her death, the other two remained with her friends’ families. Iris believes that her grandmother was one of Alouette’s friends; she also surmises that her mysterious correspondent possesses the last Alouette typewriter.