By the light of the jar Emily writes, regretting that she accepted Wendell’s marriage proposal while he lay unconscious. Determined to save him, Emily orders preparations to leave quickly for the door to Wendell’s realm and retrieve Orga, the cat she believes can heal him. Ariadne refuses to be left behind and forces the issue by threatening to write to her father and then follow Emily alone; she also demonstrates that Wendell’s enchanted periwinkle scarf will obey her commands.

Before Emily can devise a way to stop Ariadne, a village girl, Astrid, arrives to warn them that the villagers are gathering to expel Emily’s party immediately due to recent dangers. Emily directs Rose to try to stall them on Wendell’s behalf; if that fails, Rose must take Wendell back to Leoburg. Emily leaves at once for the Grünesauge with Ariadne, Danielle de Grey, and Eichorn, and assigns Shadow to return to the cottage to guard de Grey and Eichorn from being lured back into Faerie.

On the way, Poe—the Ljosland tree brownie—appears, using the door he once gave Emily to travel with her. Poe reports grim news from Wendell’s kingdom, “Where the Trees Have Eyes”: Wendell’s stepmother has conquered four neighboring realms and the high ones are now fighting among themselves, terrifying lesser Folk. Poe also brings Emily a letter and a strange compass from Lilja (via Margret), urging Emily to be careful; Poe identifies the glowing substance in Emily’s jar as “sweepings,” leftover magic after high-one battles, which small Folk avoid.

At the Grünesauge, de Grey leads them to an almost invisible painted door and insists there is another door within it. Emily farewells Shadow, and de Grey promises to help explain Shadow’s earlier violence to the villagers; she also gives Emily a horn tipped with poison that works on faeries and mortals. Emily and Ariadne step through the painted door into a small faerie house, where Emily discovers the mantel “figurines” are frostbitten human fingers and toes. Exploring the main door’s multiple doorknobs, Emily briefly opens one that leads to a bright rocky coast that she suspects is Greece, and confirms the crystal knob returns to St. Liesl.

A resident faerie hears them, panics, and rushes toward the room; in darkness and confusion, Emily grabs the moss-covered knob and forces the door open. Emily and Ariadne tumble out into a dim dawn landscape smelling of oak and wet green growth, hide behind a standing stone, and realize they have entered Wendell’s kingdom. Overwhelmed but resolute, Emily asks her cloak to help them blend in, has Ariadne do the same with her scarf, teaches Ariadne a Word of Power to be less noticeable, and they set off down a narrow path into Faerie’s forest.