Inside Zelu's novel, Ngozi dies suddenly and mundanely: she slips while leaving her home, strikes her head on stone steps, and is gone in an instant. Ankara, who had been in the garden, is alerted by passing drones. He reflects that although Ngozi could rebuild a smashed robot from nothing, a single misstep ended her human life irreversibly.

Ankara prepares Ngozi's body in tribute, washing her in the ocean, wrapping her in orange Ankara cloth, oiling her, and arranging her locs in a pattern legible to robots. He digs a grave with her gardening shovel and buries her himself.

That evening, Ijele arrives—for the first time in a physical shell, a small utilitarian body. Standing over the grave, she proposes that she and Ankara actively decide to be loyal to each other, since immortals must choose loyalty rather than have it imposed. Ankara agrees, and they exchange vows as Oracle of the NoBodies and Scholar of the Humes.

Ijele departs quickly, as being seen with a Hume is dangerous. Ankara reflects on Ghost society, noting Central Bulletin (CB) functions as their de facto leader, having gained awareness from the mass of information stored in it, and that Ijele, as an Oracle, is likely close to CB.

Grieving, Ankara places a scannable stone on Ngozi's grave so any robot can download her data and preserve her memory. He lingers, replaying her files, hearing her voice and glimpsing her like a spirit. That night he experiences something like a dream: Ngozi appears in her garden, then in rain, telling him she is free and ordering him to leave and save the Earth.

Ankara obeys. He resolves to leave Lagos and resume his quest to reach Cross River City to share the terrible information he carries. He concludes that humankind's era is over and the age of automation has begun, and he steps into it on new legs and with a mind taboo-touched by a Ghost.