Emily stands at the window of her chamber and realizes the forest below is nearly buried in snow, with drifts covering almost the tops of the trees. Because the snowfall is far beyond ordinary winter weather, Emily demands an explanation from the florists filling her room with wedding flowers. The senior florist only says it is winter, and another attendant finally offers the real answer: the king has returned.

Later, at supper in the ice-built banquet hall, Emily asks the king about the worsening weather. The king cheerfully confirms that Ljosland will now see an unprecedented winter. His answer makes Emily understand that his restored power is spilling outward into the mortal world and that he is not treating the consequences as a problem.

Emily immediately presses the human cost, warning that mortal villages cannot survive such snowfall and that animals and children will die if the storm continues. The king dismisses her fears, reassures her vaguely, and then admits the weather will last for the duration of his coronation festivities. That answer alarms Emily further, because it means he is willing to prolong a devastating winter for celebration and triumph.

When Emily tries again to make him care about the starving children, the king turns the subject into a fond anecdote about children once leaving offerings on frozen lakes to ask the Fair Folk for snow at Christmas. He is only half listening and is more interested in music and revelry than in mortal suffering. As the minstrels change songs at his request, the enchanted atmosphere overtakes Emily again, and she loses hold of the conversation she was trying to pursue.