Cardan, now High King and lovingly married to High Queen Jude, spends the night in the mortal realm with Jude and her family. He has a wonderful time in what, to him, is a very alien environment. He is struck by the stark contrast of her eclectic loving family and his—now mostly dead—loveless one. He also thinks of his and Jude’s conflicting feelings about Elfhame: his strong desire to leave it and hers to stay.

The next night, Cardan and Jude meet with the solitary fey, who request Jude’s assistance in dealing with a monster terrorizing the local woods. Queen Gliten’s Court also seeks revenge against this monster. Jude agrees to help. Cardan is irritated that the solitary fey focus only on Jude when making their request. He doesn’t want Jude to put herself in danger by fighting this monster alone.

Later, when Jude falls asleep, Cardan realizes that she was planning to sneak off to do exactly that. He initially plans to confront her but realizes that the monster is Aslog. Believing that he is the only one who can stop her, Cardan sneaks out alone instead.