he finds that Dutiful now looks to him in adulation, an emotion Fitz is unused to receiving. Through these events, Fitz stays masked in the palace as a servant of the Fool, who dresses as Lord Golden. He learns that the Fool spent the events of the Liveship Traders trilogy as a woman, Amber, and that she loves Fitz, carving a ship's masthead in his likeness. Unable to process either of these statements, Fitz testily states to the Fool that he does not desire him physically, in response to which the Fool withdraws. In another plot thread, the Old Blood venture out of their exile to negotiate with Queen Kettricken, resulting in the establishment of a Witted coterie in the court of the Six Duchies. In a parallel thread, the Narcheska, princess of the Out Islands, visits the Six Duchies in preparation for marriage with Dutiful. She asserts, however, that her marriage is conditioned on Dutiful bringing to her hearth the head of the dragon IceFyre, rumored to be an icy mountain in the north. Dutiful accepts, but the Fool is dismayed, and tries to persuade Fitz that he must instead return the dragons to the world. Fool's Fate Fitz, Dutiful and his Skilled and Witted coteries travel to the Out Islands by ship. Distrusting the Fool's intentions about dragons, Fitz bars him from their travels and leaves him on the shores of Buck before they depart. In the Out Islands, they meet the Narcheska's clans and its neighbors, who harbor distrust for them and their quest. They then journey to Aslevjal to slay the dragon IceFyre, where Fitz is surprised to discover the Fool waiting for him; using the Witness stones, the Fool teleported to the quarry in the Mountain Kingdom, where he persuaded the stone Girl-on-a-Dragon to fly him to Aslevjal. Fitz and the Fool reconcile, despite their opposing goals, and travel in search of IceFyre; however, all they find is an icy land, with little sign of the dragon. Unknown to them, the Pale Woman, a self-styled White Prophet who claims to see the future, waits underground in the icy caverns of Aslevjal. She has IceFyre imprisoned in chains; it is later revealed that Dutiful's quest was a ploy by her to end the Farseer dynasty as well as to capture the Fool, the true prophet. She succeeds in the latter, torturing the Fool to death. Fitz