Emily realizes with alarm that she stopped writing in her journal without deciding to, and she becomes afraid that she may lose hold of her memory or will entirely. Because of that fear, Emily resolves to keep the journal with her at all times. Her brief excitement over the king’s return vanishes when she learns that the sudden appearance of his castle triggered an avalanche that buried farmsteads near a neighboring village.

When Emily tells the Hidden king about the disaster, he responds with sympathy but little true understanding of mortal loss, first proposing a feast as compensation and only dimly grasping the possibility that people are dead. His attention is immediately diverted by gifts and servants, reinforcing for Emily how unstable and inhuman his priorities are. Emily is especially disturbed by how quickly faerie servants appear, as if summoned from the snow itself.

A black frost-covered carriage takes Emily and the king to the palace. The servants Brethilde and Deminsfall abase themselves before him, and the king remarks that most of his household abandoned him while he was imprisoned, though he theatrically forgives them. During the ride, he explains that his people know he has returned as naturally as mortals know winter has come, and he confidently expects his courtiers to abandon the current queen and acknowledge Emily as his betrothed. Emily probes whether he will again forbid the Folk from preying on mortals, and the king says he will not only forbid it but order all captives released, framing mercy as the duty of the strong toward the weak. This promise gives Emily some relief, even as she remains frightened by her own possible eternal imprisonment.

At the palace, Emily is unsettled by architecture that seems to blur into the mountainside when looked at directly. Inside, the vast icy structure is stark, beautiful, and overwhelming in scale, with only a few polite, brittle courtiers present to greet them. Emily remembers the king introducing her, but then her memory breaks: suddenly she is alone in the rooms assigned to her, overlooking the valley far below. The magnificent view only deepens her terror, and the chapter ends with Emily recognizing that both the palace and her own memory are becoming unreliable.