Emily checks the cottage door at dawn and finds fresh claw scratches and a loosened iron lock, suggesting something has been battering it without waking anyone. Wendell dismisses the danger, joking that nothing can breach iron, while Julia Haas shows practical concern and offers to make fried apples as a better nightly offering.

With the initial survey complete, the group splits up: Wendell and Ariadne investigate faerie doors in a neighbouring valley, while Emily and Rose go to Julia’s home to fetch Roland Haas. Roland, who knew Danielle de Grey decades earlier, escorts Emily and Rose into the mountains along de Grey’s ribbon-marked route, explaining the ribbon code used to navigate and to guide searches.

Roland leads them to a narrow, wind-lashed spine between peaks where de Grey’s last ribbon—white, for ascent—was found, implying she continued toward the summit and likely fell. Emily privately doubts the ribbons’ reliability around the Folk, especially as the mummified faerie foot in Emily’s pack begins twitching. Emily and Rose persuade Roland to let them briefly survey the adjacent valley and descend after he leaves a trail of ribbons for their return.

In the valley, the foot’s twitching continues and the forest near the lake appears faerie-touched: overhealthy pines, odd mushrooms, and lantern-like white flowers. Emily sets the foot down and it begins to “drift” by imperceptible increments, as if the landscape stretches to separate it from them, and it wavers between lake and forest. Emily and Rose argue about the risk and scientific legitimacy of using faerie artefacts, until Shadow discovers a human skull at the lake’s edge.

Rose examines the shoreline and concludes there are bones from two adult males, along with livestock remains, concentrated near caves by a misty spring. Rose reveals they are being watched, warning that their attackers may be tied to the spring; he detected this because his enchanted pocket watch stops ticking near bogles and similar creatures. Fox-like trooping faeries with unsettling infantlike faces emerge from the caves and grass, throw enchantment, and trigger Rose to bolt before he regains himself.

Rose tries to defend himself with salt but is dragged down and mauled, suffering severe wounds including a nearly torn-off ear. Emily realizes her inside-out cloak protects her and, as it impossibly expands into a shadowy, endless train, the faeries recoil in fear. Emily hurls the trailing cloak over them, making several vanish, and the remaining faeries flee; Shadow kills one and chases the rest off. Emily bandages Rose and orders Shadow to shed his glamour, becoming bear-sized so Emily can load Rose onto his back and get them safely home.