After the Nightmare loses consciousness from the smoke, Elspeth is pushed deeper into his mind and sees more of Taxus’s memories. As a young king, Taxus speaks with the trees about the fever’s dangerous magic and asks whether there is a safer way for Blunder’s people to use the Spirit’s gifts. The trees direct him to the stone, where blood opens a chasm and teaches him the pattern of Providence Cards: bleed, barter, and bend, with every request carrying a cost.

Taxus first asks for strength, and the Spirit demands a black horse from his stable. Later, Taxus tests the resulting Black Horse Card in a night training fight with Brutus Rowan, who uses the Card’s strength but still loses to Taxus. Taxus gives Brutus the Card, promotes him to Captain of the Guard, and teases him about his love for Taxus’s sister, Ayris.

Time passes, and Taxus creates more Providence Cards through repeated bargains with the Spirit. Taxus marries Petra and has children: Bennett, then Lenor, Fenly, twins Afton and Ilyc, and finally Tilly. Bennett receives the fever and dark-veined magic that the trees call the antithesis of Taxus’s power, while the next four boys receive no gifts. Tilly, however, can heal with a touch, though each healing weakens her own body.

Because Tilly’s healing harms her, Taxus asks for a Card that can heal and make its user beautiful and unblemished like a pink rose. Petra dies before Tilly’s fourth nameday, and Taxus buries Petra by the meadow, with the memory ominously noting that Taxus will later dig Petra up to forge the Mirror. Before that, Taxus creates another Card meant to make others bend their wills to him.

Brutus accompanies Taxus during the creation of that Card and questions whether the Spirit’s prices are too high, especially after Taxus admits the price is his sleep. Taxus insists that Providence Cards are controlled gifts that avoid degeneration, but Brutus warns that people may begin seeking magic from Taxus instead of from the Spirit. Taxus dismisses the concern and gives Brutus one of the newly formed red Scythe Cards, warning that commanding it means commanding pain.

In the final memory, Taxus walks through a now-empty wood, more hungry for magic than for family or rule. He asks the trees for an eleventh Providence Card that will let him enter another person’s mind, partly because Brutus has grown distant. The trees warn that minds are dangerous places and demand Taxus’s soul for such a nightmare; Taxus leaves the chamber holding two burgundy Cards as mist begins to smother the meadow.