Forged Outislanders return to themselves, including Elliania's mother and sister. Icefire and Tintaglia unite. Fitz gathers the coterie to try to heal Burrich but they are unable to due to his being sealed off to the skill. Instead, Thick is able to heal other members of the party injured in the fight. Finally, Fitz is able to remove Elliania's tattoo. Fitz goes back to the Pale Woman's realm to find the Fool. Peottre tells him the Fool is dead, but Fitz goes anyway. Fitz finds the fool dead in the Pale Woman's realm. He also finds the Pale woman who has not died and tries to get Fitz to kill her. She has been deformed since Kebal Rawbread tried to take her with him into the dragon. Fitz concentrates on saving the Fool's body. He finds a room with a map of the Skill Stones and then Skill Stones and takes himself and the Fool to the stone quarry where the Elderling dragons sleep. He is able to bring the Fool back from the dead. They then return to the Black Man and Thick. The Fool and the Black Man turn out to be from the same school. The Black Man is also a White and he explains how he tried to deal with the Pale Woman. The Fool tells Fitz he is going back to his school with the Black Man, although Fitz wants to bring him back to Buckkeep. In the end, Fitz and Thick go back through the memory stones. He meets Patience and Lacey by accident and Lacey recognizes him. Fitz then returns to the Black Man's cave. The Fool removes their Skill bond and it is supposed to be their final parting. Fitz gathers two sacks of Skill writings to return to Chade. He and the Black Man find the Pale Woman who is dead. Fitz returns through the Skill stones but turns out he was lost within them for a month. In the month he was gone, the Fool came to Buckkeep, and was surprised Fitz was not there. He left a gift for him. Fitz arrived in time for Harvestfest and Elliania arrives unannounced to marry Dutiful. Fitz meets Molly and they begin to patch things between them slowly. After much back and forth, Molly and Fitz marry. They move to Withywoods, which Patience has given to Molly in recognition of Burrich's service