6: Poor Assumptions

Before dawn, Aurora packs for the Starmaker’s castle, mourning the life she leaves yet steady in her resolve. Elsie offers comfort and a childhood quilt, and Evander arrives to see Aurora off. Their mother recalls a family tale, and the household gathers in solemn support.

The Starmaker arrives in a white, regal ensemble. To test and fulfill Aurora’s bargain, he takes Elsie’s hands and heals her Frost, restoring warmth and color. Grateful yet conflicted, Aurora thanks him. Aspen declares the family’s devotion to Aurora above their reverence for the Starmaker, and he acknowledges their warning.

Aurora boards the ornate sleigh drawn by snow deer, pointedly reminding the Starmaker that courtesies do not erase his coercion. As they leave, she lets him witness her grief. The forest climb reveals the glittering ice-and-ivory castle, but a hidden stretch near the Frost chills Aurora to the marrow until she nearly blacks out.

At his urgent command, Aurora clutches the Starmaker’s hands; heat floods her, and with his touch to her face the last of the cold ebbs. He explains she will be susceptible to the Frost until her magic develops and notes he stays closest to it because it cannot harm him. They continue in tense silence past miraculous cherry blossoms to the castle.

At the grand entrance, attendants await. The Starmaker pointedly states he is well-mannered but not a gentleman and leaves her in the cold. In a closing perspective shift, he reflects that Aurora is both successor and unwilling fiancée—a cost of his impatience in accepting her terms—and, though he dislikes marriage, he is grateful to have finally found his Starmaker Rising.