Isla reacts before the Moonling guards can attack or call for help. Using pressure-point strikes Terra taught her, Isla incapacitates the guards without drawing blood, drags the guards into the room, and runs deeper into Cleo’s castle despite illness, exhaustion, and injuries.

With stealth no longer possible, Isla searches urgently for the library while guards pursue her through the halls. The ocean’s violent pounding against the palace grows louder, helping Isla orient herself toward the outer part of the castle, where the Moonling curse is visibly shaking chandeliers and artwork.

Isla reaches a dead end and realizes the wall does not shake as much as it should when the sea strikes, meaning something must be behind it. As guards close in, Isla uses Celeste’s gloves to unlock the hidden wall and slips through, discovering the frozen library just as the guards identify her location and begin calling for Cleo.

Inside, Isla finds that every book is encased in ice and that the library appears to hold no relics. A violent wave knocks Isla to the floor, and her head hits the frozen marble. Her body heat clears part of the frost, revealing a second, underwater library beneath the floor where relics float chained in water.

Isla examines the visible relics but does not find the bondbreaker, the glass-needle-like object she needs to break her curse. Badly weakened by her burn, illness, the earlier demonstration, and a bleeding head wound, Isla nearly collapses as the guards break through the entrance and announce that the legion is outside and Cleo is coming.

Although trapped, Isla has not intended to escape by the same route. Isla draws her starstick, relies on her familiarity with her room in the Mainland castle, and portals away at the moment the wall comes down.