Emily, Wendell, Ariadne, Shadow, and the unwilling tagalong Farris Rose barely make their connections out of Cambridge and begin the four-day train journey toward Leoburg, Austria, then St. Liesl. Rose mostly keeps to himself, while Ariadne chatters with excitement; Emily, tense about possible attacks, salts her compartment and hides the mummified faerie foot under the bed within a protective circle.

During the night, Emily hears odd rustling from Wendell’s compartment but assumes he is awake and snacking. In the morning, Shadow’s growl wakes Emily to find the “ribbons man” standing in her locked room; he phases through barriers and looks decades younger than before. He repeats cryptic instructions about turning “left,” speaks of being “lost” among many paths, and implies Emily is deeper in a wilderness than she understands, then leaves after unlocking the door from the inside.

Emily chases him into the corridor but collides with Rose, who saw nothing. Wendell does not answer his locked door, so Emily seeks Ariadne in the dining car and recounts the encounter. Emily proposes the ribbons man may be an assassin tied to Wendell’s stepmother, possibly a human captive under enchantment; Rose joins them, argues Emily is leaping to conclusions, and proposes research steps: literature searches for motifs involving ribbons and reverse aging, trying to obtain a ribbon if the man returns, and having Ariadne ask nearby passengers if they have seen him.

The discussion turns sour when Rose insists Wendell is not a partner in the expedition but merely a dangerous subject. Rose bluntly warns Emily that trusting an exiled faerie royal from Silva Lupi is reckless, stressing the kingdom’s history of mortal disappearances and scholar deaths. Stung and shaken, Emily leaves, newly feeling the real peril of seeking a door into Wendell’s world.

Emily returns to Wendell’s compartment and discovers it has been sealed with leaves; forcing it open reveals the room transformed into a living faerie bower—ivy-covered walls, mossy stone flooring, and a vanished wall opening onto a lantern-lit path and turf-roofed dwellings. Sparrows attack Emily until Wendell wakes and steadies her, and Wendell admits the transformation was accidental “dream-magic,” likely caused by lingering poison that is confusing his power and leaving him tired. Emily briefly thinks she sees flickering bird-wing shadows on Wendell’s chest, but the vision fades; Wendell urges her to ignore omens, promises he is improving, and resolves to avoid using magic while they try to clean up the compartment.