Oak makes his way through the crowded feast in his honor, distracted by courtiers gossiping about Wren as the Winter Queen. He arrives late at the High Table, where Wren is already standing before Jude and Cardan. Straun, Oak's former captor, delivers Grimsen's bridle to Wren. Rather than returning it, Wren unmakes it on the spot, then offers to remove a half-curse laid on Jude long ago by Valerian, while leaving an existing geas intact. She performs the unmaking, leaving Jude shaken. The act puts the High King and Queen in her debt and makes them appear weak before their Court, mirroring what Bogdana once did to Wren.

Cardan recovers with a toast to love. Oak notices Wren growing dangerously pale, the same waxy weakness she suffered aboard the Moonskimmer, and pulls her into a dance to hide it. He nearly carries her through the steps. Wren admits she believes Oak's family hates her, and Oak concedes there is some truth to it. They speak haltingly about how many people Oak has killed and what Madoc understands about him.

Oak fetches water for Wren. The Ghost intercepts him to warn him not to wander alone, promising more information tomorrow. Jack of the Lakes reports having witnessed Bogdana meeting a golden-skinned hag who showed her the contents of a large trunk before taking it away. Oak promises to speak to Jude about Jack's release.

At the banquet, Oak is seated apart from Wren as a deliberate snub. Bogdana arrives late, plunges her hand into a pie, retrieves a coin, and demands her boon: that Wren and Oak marry the next day. Jude counters with a proposal: a hunt and dance on Insear, after which she will pose Wren a question about Oak; a wrong answer delays the wedding seven days, a right one allows immediate marriage. Wren agrees. Oak adds his own condition that he choose the question, hoping to give Wren a way out without forcing her to publicly refuse him.