Emily records that time and memory are becoming difficult to track in Faerie, leaving her recollections patchy. She suspects this may be due either to deliberate enchantment or to Faerie containing experiences beyond what a mortal mind can hold, and she continues journaling to keep herself grounded.

Traveling through the barrow “short roads,” Emily believes they passed through at least one faerie village, remembering lantern-lit doors in trees and a canopy that seemed like a glittering night sky. Her impressions include many kinds of Folk, an enormous fox-like beast tied outside what may have been a tavern, feral human children running with a white wolf, and a filthy, despairing human woman sobbing on a doorstep.

Emily recalls another barrow village as well, with an uncertain memory of fireworks or a magical display, and that they stayed there at least one night. Then, with no clear recollection of how they left, Emily abruptly finds herself looking across a mirror-still lake at the castle of Wendell’s stepmother, perched between the water and a steep, forested hillside laced with silver bridges among the treetops.

At dawn, Ariadne spots the castle’s “gargoyles,” which Emily recognizes as the queen’s guardians: enormous owl-like creatures with sparse feathers and six long, spiderish limbs gripping the parapets. Snowbell confirms he has seen ten at once, adding that they sometimes trail prey without attacking when they are already full, which horrifies Ariadne.

Seeing only eight on the parapets and fearing others may be hidden, Emily decides they should rest under the trees’ shadows for a few hours. Emily then resolves to approach the castle alone in full daylight, not by sneaking but by walking in openly, arguing that evasion is impossible in a fae court and that the only workable strategy is deception through confident pretense—presenting herself simply as herself.