Carl finishes looting the dead hunter, Bravvo, and learns more about hunter equipment limitations. He takes health and mana refills, keeps valuable levitation potions, and uses his safe-looting method while Tsarina Signet and her group watch in the rain. The scene reinforces that Carl is under heavy pressure from the hunt, but it also gives him a few useful resources for what comes next.

Signet tells Carl and Donut that they are not safe near the river because creatures from the confederate-held waters sometimes emerge during heavy rain. She leads them into the jungle with Clint, Nadine the giant caterpillar, and six mounted warriors, while Areson stays behind to deal with invaders spilling out of Zockau. Carl thinks about helping with that fight, but Signet makes clear that bringing him to this meeting is already a dangerous priority.

As they travel, Carl and Donut question Signet about her past. Signet confirms that her father was the high elf king Finian, now dead, and that her half-sister Imogen rules the high elves. Signet also reveals that her naiad mother, a princess who loved and protected her, died in the confederate revolution, and that her family palace is now occupied by confederate nobles. Donut briefly compares this rejection to her own history with her father, and Signet offers to help Donut reclaim her crown if needed.

Carl then asks what happened to the circus after he escaped it earlier in the story. Signet explains that Grimaldi killed the parasites controlling the circus performers, freeing them in the same way Heather the bear was freed, and that the performers crumbled away once released. Grimaldi himself did not return to being a dwarf, and Signet implies his role in events is nearly over. She also identifies the missing strongman as Areson, brother to the dead Apollon and to Herman the Fleet, whose fate remains unknown.

Finally, Signet explains why she sought Carl out. She is assembling a team, and Carl and Donut are the last members she needs. She reveals that Nadine was once a Chee teacher and that the six warriors are surviving Chee children transformed long ago by Princess Imogen during a high elf assault; their people were hunted after the spell, and those survivors have been fighting ever since. Signet ends by stating her true objective: she intends to strike at both powers she sees as cancers on the land, the Confederacy and the High Elves.