The chapter opened with Darlington’s love of Halloween at Black Elm and a formative memory from childhood: seeing a newspaper photo of the long-gone Savin Rock roller coaster that a freckled boy had claimed to see across the water, cementing Darlington’s belief in hidden worlds. This longing for true magic carried into his Yale years and colored his view of New Haven and the Houses.

On the night of Manuscript’s party, Darlington met Alex behind the Hutch. He warned her that Manuscript’s mirror magic manipulates perception and that they must avoid food and drink. They entered the unassuming tomb, noting its deceptive design and the way the ground floor party powered the magic below through collective pretense and delusion. Alex reported Grays clustering around the revelers.

They passed Doug Far guarding the stairs and descended through levels of escalating glamour: a golden-lit VIP floor, a lush forest picnic, a flower-strewn cathedral of entwined bodies, and a stylized mountaintop arbor. On the central fifth level, a banquet hall with a vast swirling mirror-vault, Lan Caihe—this night’s chosen, with white, all-seeing eyes—offered hospitality and needled them about Lethe refusing Manuscript’s suggestions for the freshman tap. Caihe proposed erasing Alex’s tattoos “for a fair price,” which Alex deflected.

Darlington suddenly felt heavy and disoriented after earlier walking through a fog-machine blast. Compelled by Caihe’s command to “Descend,” his perception shifted to a cavernous version of the banquet room, the mirror humming as it revealed grotesque reflections of decay and shifting faces. He saw Alex as a true Queen Mab, crowned in stars and radiating power, and he fell to his knees, overwhelmed by manipulated devotion.

In reality, Darlington had hiked Alex’s skirt amid masked onlookers, consumed by drug-induced desire. Alex bit his ear to shock him back and ordered him to “get your shit together.” Recognizing the fog as the vector, Darlington pulled away as Caihe joked she “can’t blame a god for trying.” Alex hurried him out, confronting Manuscript officers Mike Awolowo and Kate Masters outside while keeping Darlington steady.

In the car, Alex told Darlington the society feared a report; she offered to handle the write-up, arguing he couldn’t be objective. Mortified, Darlington apologized, but Alex minimized the incident and insisted she would not do the job without him. She took him to Black Elm, settled him in bed, and said the drug would clear in about twelve hours. Through a restless night of anger, shame, and visions of Alex crowned in stars, Darlington concluded that Alex Stern was not what she seemed.