Professor Emily Wilde arrives in the remote village of Hrafnsvik, Ljosland, with her dog Shadow to research the elusive Hidden Ones.

Emily visits the local tavern and unknowingly offends Aud, the village headwoman, by refusing her offer to pay for dinner.

Emily returns to the hot spring and strikes a bargain with a small faerie named Poe, trading a beaver skin for fresh bread.

Wendell Bambleby arrives uninvited at Emily's cottage with two graduate students and announces he plans to assist her research.

Emily visits the changeling possessing Mord and Aslaug's stolen son, survives its illusions, but extracts no useful information from it.

Emily accidentally slices Wendell's arm with an iron axe while chopping firewood, causing him to bleed severely.

Emily brews red willow tea to heal Wendell's iron wound, confirming to herself and Aud that he is truly fae.

Emily and Wendell find the white tree deep in the forest, and a leaf accidentally brushes Emily's finger, enchanting her.

Wendell confesses he is a faerie king exiled from Silva Lupi after his stepmother murdered his siblings to seize the throne.

Lilja and her girlfriend Margret are abducted overnight by the Hidden Ones and taken into the faerie realm.

Emily sneaks alone into the faerie realm at dawn and finds Lilja and Margret enchanted inside a festive faerie market.

Emily stabs herself and cries into the snow, forging a sword from her frozen tears that Wendell uses to slay their attacker.

Emily and Wendell uncover the changeling's true name, banish it to the forest, and return the real child Ari to his parents.

Emily uses her button Word of Power to free the Hidden king from his tree prison, and he declares her his bride.

Wendell, Aud, and Hrafnsvik villagers rescue Emily from the Hidden king's ice castle after chaos erupts during the gift-giving ceremony.

Emily Wilde arrives in the remote village of Hrafnsvik to compile the final entry of her faerie encyclopedia, only to find herself navigating social tensions with the townspeople and the unwelcome arrival of her colleague Wendell Bambleby. When she accidentally wounds Wendell with an iron axe, healing him with a faerie remedy confirms his true nature to Emily and the village headwoman Aud. A white tree in the forest enchants Emily's finger, and Wendell is forced to reveal his identity as an exiled faerie king from the realm of Silva Lupi. As the Hidden Ones begin abducting villagers, Emily ventures alone into the faerie realm to rescue them and forges an impossible sword from her own tears to help Wendell fight their way out. Back in Hrafnsvik, Emily solves the mystery of the stolen townspeople and uses a Word of Power to free the Hidden king from his prison, only to become his captive bride in turn. The combined efforts of Wendell, Aud, and the entire village ultimately secure Emily's freedom and bring her nine-year research project to its triumphant conclusion.

The complete arc of Emily's quest to document the Hidden Ones.

Emily receives a charming letter from Wendell Bambleby expressing concern for her safety and hinting at his arrival in Ljosland.

Emily finds Wendell's letter completely unscathed in the hearth the next morning, further fueling her suspicion that he is fae.

Emily spots a pale faerie leaving a bloody handprint in a family's window while walking through Hrafnsvik.

Wendell takes graduate students Henry and Lizzie to visit the changeling child, and the encounter traumatizes them both.

Henry and Lizzie flee Ljosland without warning, leaving Emily and Wendell alone together in the cottage for the rest of the expedition.

Wendell redecorates the shared cottage with curtains and furnishings, transforming the sparse space into a warm and inviting home.

Emily and Aud bond while tending to Wendell's wounds and agree to keep his faerie identity a shared secret between them.

The townspeople warm to Emily after Wendell's injury, allowing her to collect folk stories about a white tree imprisoning an ancient faerie king.

Emily finds Poe lost in the forest after the Hidden Ones burn his tree and helps him home in exchange for three questions.

Bogle faeries surround Emily alone in the dark; she uses her invisibility Word of Power until Wendell arrives and kills them all.

Shadow reveals his Grim nature by locating a door out of the faerie realm and fetching Wendell from the human world.

Emily, Wendell, Lilja, and Margret return safely to Hrafnsvik, where the townspeople discover that Wendell is a faerie.

Emily deduces that the changeling child has been acting as a powerful beacon drawing the Hidden Ones into Hrafnsvik each winter.

Wendell professes his love for Emily, proposes marriage, and offers her his true faerie name as proof of his devotion.

Poe names Emily his fjolskylda and gifts her a bone key on a necklace as a parting token before she leaves Ljosland.

From Wendell's first ominous letter to his declaration of love, this pool captures the significant events that run alongside the main plot and reveal character and consequence in equal measure. Emily's rocky start with Hrafnsvik—accidentally offending its headwoman and drawing local skepticism—gives way to genuine warmth after Wendell's near-fatal injury and the secret bond Emily and Aud forge over his care. Small discoveries accumulate into larger revelations, as Emily confirms Wendell's faerie nature, unmasks the changeling as a beacon for the Hidden Ones, and watches Shadow reveal himself as a Grim at a critical moment. The rescue of Lilja and Margret brings Emily closer to the village community than she ever anticipated, while Wendell's unprompted acts of love push her into emotional territory she has always carefully avoided. This pool ends with a deeply personal farewell as Poe names Emily his fjolskylda, offering her the closest bond a faerie of his kind can give.

The quieter but pivotal moments that shaped Emily's time in Hrafnsvik.

Krystjan Egilson warns Emily to study only the minor faeries and avoid provoking the region's dangerous courtly Folk.

Emily discovers a hot spring behind her cottage and leaves a diamond and tin of sweets as offerings for the local faeries.

Emily meets Auðor, Aud's niece, who has been left hollow and unresponsive after being taken and returned by the fae.

Wendell invites Emily to the prestigious ICODEF conference, intending to present their joint findings and secure research funding.

Wendell charms the Hrafnsvik villagers at the tavern effortlessly and begins pursuing the woodcutter Lilja, who shows no interest.

Poe reveals to Emily that Wendell is a faerie prince who has been secretly asking questions about local faerie doors.

The white tree's roots drag Wendell toward it, forcing him to teleport openly and fully expose his faerie powers to Emily.

Emily notices a growing shadow ring on her enchanted finger and realises a compulsion prevents her from telling Wendell about it.

Before the rescue mission departs, Wendell heals Poe's burned tree with a single touch, earning the small faerie's deep gratitude.

Emily asks Poe two questions and learns that the Hidden Ones fear fire and the captive women are where the aurora bleeds white.

Emily trades cloaks with a faerie man in the Hidden Ones' market and receives a white fur cloak with magical supplying pockets.

Emily cuts off her own enchanted finger with an axe to sever the white tree's growing hold before it can claim her entirely.

Emily asks Poe her final question and learns the Hidden queen imprisoned the king by buttoning him inside a cloak woven from all seasons.

Emily reads Wendell's journal and learns for the first time that the Hrafnsvik townspeople spent weeks plotting and sacrificing to rescue her.

Emily and Wendell depart Hrafnsvik and travel together to present their completed research findings at the ICODEF conference.

From the very first warning to avoid the courtly Folk, this pool traces every crucial revelation and pivotal choice that changed what Emily's expedition became. Early signs—a hollow girl left ruined by the fae, a suspicious colleague asking the wrong questions, and an enchantment Emily cannot even name aloud—establish the layers of danger that accumulate beneath the story's cozy surface. The truth about the Hidden king's imprisonment and Wendell's decade-long search for a door home reframe the stakes entirely, turning Emily from a detached scholar into an active participant in the faerie world's politics. Each decision Emily makes under pressure—what questions to spend, which enchantment to invoke, whether to cut off her own finger—reveals the extraordinary power of her scholarship when applied to real peril. The pool closes as Emily's personal and professional transformation is realised at ICODEF, where the encyclopedia she spent nine years building is finally unveiled to the world.