Oak crosses the ice to the Stone Forest, finding it transformed—lush rather than menacing—and the wall he once knew now opened by a newly built ice gate. Falcons take flight to announce him as he passes through, taking in Wren's recreated landscape of icy copses and snow-sculpted animals, evidence of the magical inheritance she has finally claimed.

In place of the old Citadel stands a new castle of black obsidian, more forbidding than what came before. The doors open at his touch, and the empty hall echoes as he searches the rooms. He finds Wren in a library, in a blue dressing gown with her wings spread, reading. She greets him with surprise, not encouragement.

Oak refuses to be sent away as he was when they were children. He confesses his love plainly, telling her he wants to be monsters together if that is what she fears she is. Wren tests him—asking what if she sends him away, what if she is too much—and he answers that he will give her whatever she wants, even from afar. She asks him to stay.

Settled together on the couch, Wren asks what he would have asked her on Insear had things gone differently. Oak admits he would have proposed marriage in earnest, offering the ultimate sacrifice: becoming a king rather than fleeing royal duty. Wren laughingly accepts, agreeing to marry him just to make him suffer.