Matthias, Kaz, Jesper, and Wylan run across the embassy roof toward the drüskelle sector as Kaz presses Matthias to keep helping the crew because Nina is already headed for the White Island. Jesper and Wylan joke nervously about the law courts while the group uses a rope and grappling hook to cross to the drüskelle roof.

Standing on the drüskelle roof unsettles Matthias because the place feels like home transformed into enemy ground. Hearing the wolves and remembering his former life, Matthias feels torn between old loyalties and the strange attachments he has formed to the crew, especially Nina, whose survival has shaken him. Matthias decides he cannot afford hesitation and leads Kaz onward.

At the edge of the ice moat, Kaz sends Jesper and Wylan away with instructions to act at eleven bells, then follows Matthias down to the narrow shore. Matthias explains that drüskelle aspirants secretly cross the moat during Hringkälla and locates the hidden wolf carving that marks a submerged glass bridge. Matthias and Kaz cover themselves in chalky powder for camouflage and cross the freezing, nearly invisible bridge toward the White Island.

As they enter a hidden passage through the island wall, Matthias and Kaz speak about locks, magic tricks, and the way Kaz studies illusions until he understands them. Matthias guides Kaz toward the gardens that lead to the ballroom, but two armed drüskelle guards discover them. Matthias instinctively uses a commander's phrase to make the guards hesitate, then he and Kaz knock both guards unconscious.

After the fight, Matthias realizes he is holding a rifle while Kaz is unarmed and that the fallen guards are men he once would have considered brothers. Matthias considers shooting Kaz but cannot bring himself to kill an unarmed man, especially after Kaz has kept his bargain. Kaz reveals that the moment was a deliberate test of Matthias' loyalty and proves he was never truly defenseless by flipping up a rifle with his foot.

Kaz and Matthias prepare to take the guards' uniforms so they can enter the party. Matthias recognizes that Kaz's methods rely on deception and risk, but he also begins to see trickery as a language he may need to learn if he is to survive the night.