Deka begins her first-person narration on the day of the Ritual of Purity in the Northern village of Irfut. This winter morning, she meets her father in the barn. They believe her mother is dead from the red pox (but it is later revealed that this is a ruse to hide her mother’s divine blood), so Deka helps her father around the farm. They talk about the ritual, and Deka worries about being “impure” (with good cause, it turns out). Pure women wear masks from forehead to nose as a sign of maturity after coming of age. Deka reflects on her mom being from the South; this caused both of them to have dark skin, unlike the light skin of her dad and other Northerners. Later it is revealed that Deka and her mother also share a lineage to goddesses (the Gilded Ones).

While running errands in the village square, Deka sees the temple of Oyomo and her friend Elfriede, as well as many visitors from different regions with different skin tones and hair types. The festival-like environment is dampened by members of the jatu: the emperor’s elite guard. They are present because creatures called deathshrieks are supposedly attacking villages and stealing away impure girls (in truth, saving these girls from being tortured and killed).