Emily Wilde notes that time in Faerie is unreliable, but counts the day as she experiences it. Determined to reach Wendell’s court as part of her plan to steal Wendell’s cat, Emily realizes she does not know the castle’s location and has only Wendell’s past remark that the fauns live in mountains east of his court.

Assuming they entered through the fauns’ door in those eastern mountains, Emily and Ariadne decide to travel west. Lilja’s compass proves useless in Wendell’s realm, its needle spinning to contradictory directions, which briefly distracts Emily into thinking academically about how Faerie might disrupt magnetism.

As they move into the forest, Emily is shaken by something horrifying about the realm’s nature and struggles to even write about it, forcing herself to focus on safer details: bluebells, misty light, and strange silver baubles floating in the treetops that feel reminiscent of faerie stones.

The pair follow a path into a wider road, choose west at a crossroads, and pass through alternating pleasant country and unnaturally dark groves where glowing, yellow-speckled slugs crawl over moving-looking bark. Emily draws Ariadne close and shelters her with an expanding cloak while they hear unsettling rustling nearby and feel watched.

They encounter the Folk only indirectly—distant laughter, horses, and music that will not stay in memory—and glimpse signs of nearby dwellings and occasional brownies. Near day’s end, they spot a shabby, hooded faerie hauling a rattling cart; Emily hides, then they pass by muttering the Word, yet the traveller’s humming seems to linger for hours afterward, fraying their nerves.