Elspeth recalls being nine years old when Physicians came to her aunt and uncle's house during her fever. Her aunt tried to hide her by pushing her out a window toward the wood, but Elspeth struck her head on stone and collapsed while fleeing. The voice in Elspeth's mind urged her onward, and when Elspeth fainted, Elspeth experienced what seemed like a dream: mist entered her, her veins turned black, and pain tore through her arms.

Elspeth woke under an alder tree, somehow dragged into the shelter of the forest and away from the Physicians. Her torn hands and disturbed earth showed that something had helped her crawl to safety. Elspeth later understood that the helper was the Nightmare, the voice with yellow eyes in her mind, and eleven years later she no longer fears him, though she believes she should.

In the present, Elspeth walks the forest road to meet her cousin Ione in Blunder on Elspeth's nameday. Elspeth uses a crow's-foot charm near the mist, enters town uneasily, and relies on Ione's warmth to endure the crowds and the visit to Elspeth's father's house. The Nightmare wakes in Elspeth's mind, watches Ione through Elspeth's eyes, and speaks in unsettling rhymes, reminding Elspeth that her infection did leave her with secret magic no one fully understands.

As Elspeth and Ione move through Blunder, they hear screams and see a woman whose veins have gone black being taken by black-cloaked Destriers, the King's elite soldiers. At Spindle House, Elspeth sees the old family courtyard and enters the parlor, where her stepmother Nerium and half sisters Nya and Dimia receive her with practiced unease. Conversation turns to Equinox at Stone and the use of Providence Cards, and the Nightmare alerts Elspeth to her father Erik's approach by seeing the blue light of the Well Card in Erik's pocket.

Erik enters and gives Elspeth yarrow for her nameday, a tender gesture that briefly softens Elspeth despite their painful history. Before dinner, Nerium privately warns Elspeth not to attend Equinox and reminds Elspeth that Erik pays the Hawthorns to keep Elspeth hidden. Hurt and angry, Elspeth leaves Spindle House instead of dining, cries once outside, speaks bitterly with the Nightmare about running from Nerium, waits by the river hoping Ione will follow, and finally returns alone toward the wood at dusk.