Cardan had told you to head back Vivienne right after he and The Roach found you in Madoc’s house. They helped you escape without any suspicion and Cardan made you promise you’d head to your sisters after they left. He never fully believed you, seeing as how you always went against him and how you were in the Fae world even when he had exiled you. That didn’t matter to him though. What mattered was that you got home safe and not continued to fight in your state.

You, being the independent mortal you are, go against your promise and head off into the woods and soon find yourself sword against sword with Madoc. After a few rounds of tumbling and running, Madoc manages to stab you in the stomach. Taryn and Vivienne appear to help you and they stitch up your wounds before you inform them of needing to go to the palace where Madoc tricked you into thinking Cardan would get murdered.

After a while, you arrive and enter through the brugh and up the stairs to reach the crowd where you ditch your disguise, a mistake. You reach the curve of a ceiling, where you prop yourself up before you notice The Bomb, her arrow perched and shot at you. Dodging, you slip off the ceiling and onto the main table of the palace, a display for all the Fae to see. “You’re a liar,” Cardan sneers, seeing your fall. “A dirty mortal liar.”

His acquaintance, Randalin, grabs your arm to chain you up as directed previously from the High King, Cardan. As he grabs you, Cardan voice breaks through the murmurs and whispers. “Do not touch her.” Randalin looks confused and as he’s about to speak, Cardan cuts him off, saying, “She’s my wife. The rightful High Queen of Elfhame. And most definitely not in exile.” Shocked gasps erupted in the quieted crowd, shocking everyone as Randalin unhands you.