Scythe

In his journal, Rowan writes that he's apprenticed to a monster. He agrees with Scythe Faraday that nobody who loves killing should be a scythe, and he admits that he's afraid he's becoming a monster. Rowan tears the page out, burns it, and then writes about his training and how motivating Scythe Goddard is.

On Citra and Scythe Curie's first day back at Falling Water, Citra confesses that she's been researching Faraday's murder. Curie is shocked and disgusted with herself for not knowing what Citra was doing. When Citra admits that she told Rowan, Curie says that Rowan's choice to break Citra's neck suggests he's in league with Goddard. She tells Citra to forget this, achieve scythehood, and fight the scandal from the inside. Citra agrees, but feels like Curie is hiding something.

The next day, while Curie is at the market, two BladeGuard officers come to Curie's home and ask Citra to come with them. They refuse to show her badges and Citra attacks them. One shocks her and she comes to in a car, handcuffed. They accuse her of murdering Faraday. Because Citra is a member of the Scythedom, her fate is in the hands of Xenocrates. At his residence, she sits in a chair and refutes the changes. Scythe Mandela accuses Citra of trying to erase evidence of killing Faraday from the Thunderhead's backbrain. He pulls out his evidence: one of Faraday's journal entries, saying that his apprentice comes to his door at night and he's afraid she's going to kill him.

Citra is shaken, especially when Mandela says that whoever killed Faraday used Faraday's ring to bribe witnesses with immunity. Mandela leaves. Xenocrates says that he's been studying "tor-turé" from the Age of Mortality, which is inflicting physical suffering until a person confesses. He says that he will "tor-turé" Citra if she doesn't sign a confession. If she signs, she'll be held in an old prison and after Winter Conclave, Rowan will glean her. Xenocrates gives her a pen and as Mandela opens the door to witness her signature, Citra punches Xenocrates. She pushes past Mandela and jumps off the building to splat.

Xenocrates isn't concerned until he sees that Nimbus agents—people who work for the Thunderhead—are the ones scraping Citra off the pavement. An agent says that while Citra is dead, she's under the Thunderhead's jurisdiction. Xenocrates threatens to glean the agent, but she points out that that would look biased. He screams in her face.