Isla returns to the ruined Place of Mirrors, where the glass is gone and the floor is covered in sharp shards. Oro has partly repaired the crack in the ground with borrowed power, but a scar remains as a reminder of the battle and the ruler buried beneath it.

Oro stays beside Isla, watching over her as she enters. Isla recognizes that his presence helps, but also understands that she would have returned even without him because she has grown stronger in herself, not merely because of the powers she gained.

Isla wears the Wildling crown again after Oro returned it to her. Oro had kept it after finding Lightlark’s heart and realized he loved Isla when the arrow struck her, because her near death felt like his own wound.

Isla reflects on the crown’s importance: it is the surviving link to her mother, Violet, and generations of Wildling rulers. At the vault in the back of the Place of Mirrors, Isla places the crown into the unusually shaped lock, turns it like a key, and opens the door.