In a cosmic digital prelude, the Red River Oracle AI awakens from aggregated river data, birthing a mythic origin tale of Riverton's polluted heart as a prophetic entity. It generates an embedded AI poem foretelling the Redfords' rise and fall: 'A stone-hearted builder drowned in crimson tides.' The narrative shifts to Donald Redford's lavish estate banquet, where he bombastically announces the River Renaissance Project, renaming the toxic waterway 'Eden Renewal' in a tirade of superlatives: 'It's gonna be huge, folks—the best river ever!' Elara, observing from the shadows, collects a river stone talisman, her lyrical whispers echoing the oracle's verse amid familial tensions. Elon Stark arrives uninvited, tweeting cryptically about 'neural echoes' in the river, sparking Donald's paranoid accusations of sabotage. Victoria Voss, lurking in the crowd, slips a barbed quip to Elara, planting seeds of doubt. The chapter closes with an oracle data log hinting at impending betrayals, as red eddies swirl ominously outside.