Serilda arrives in Adalheid to find the spring equinox celebration starkly different from Märchenfeld’s festivities. Doors bear garlands of animal bones, and townspeople prepare a somber feast alongside caged live animals for the hunt’s entertainment.

Leyna greets Serilda warmly, explaining that the feast belongs to the hunters and that Vergoldetgeist is rumored to be the only castle resident who does not attend. Serilda confides her plan to sneak into the castle during the feast. Lorraine interrupts them and warns that confronting the Erlking during the Feast of Death would be suicide, explaining that the feast is a tradition to appease the hunt and keep Adalheid’s children safe.

As dusk falls, townspeople gather near the bridge to launch a skeleton effigy of Velos, the god of death, which the hunters will use for target practice. After Lorraine’s speech, the crowd disperses, and Leyna gives Serilda detailed instructions for sneaking into the castle by boat. Serilda hides until the streets are empty, then makes her way to the docks. As the last sunlight disappears, the veil drops, and the ruined castle transforms from decayed to magnificent. A hunting horn sounds from within.

Serilda flattens herself on the dock as the castle gates open. The Erlking leads a procession of dark ones and ghosts across the bridge, where ghost servants pour drinks and musicians play. Serilda searches for her mother among the female ghosts, but recognizes no one.

The Erlking fires an arrow into the Velos effigy and shouts for the hunt to begin. Cages open, terrified animals scatter through the city, and hounds and hunters give chase.

Serilda creeps to a boat belonging to the Wild Swan Inn. She’s never rowed before and struggles to maneuver it to the castle, but the party noise masks her clumsiness. After a difficult climb up slick, moss-covered rocks, she hauls herself onto the empty bridge and dashes through the castle gates. Torn between searching for Gild and investigating the mysterious room with the tapestry, she decides to quickly check the room first.

The castle interior is eerily pristine and fully lit but completely empty. Serilda navigates to the mysterious room and finds it unlocked. Inside, a single candle illuminates a lace-draped cage containing an unmoving shape. The tapestry, hanging in shreds, shows a nighttime garden scene with a skull-faced man in royal regalia and a girl with thick ringlet curls who resembles the portrait from the locket.

A drude lunges from the shadows and plunges Serilda into a nightmare: the Märchenfeld schoolhouse burning, her father dead, her loved ones tortured and killed. A roar breaks through—Gild appears wielding a golden sword and kills both drudes before scolding Serilda for her recklessness. When her legs give out, he apologizes and helps her to the great hall fireplace.

Gild explains that drudes can terrorize victims until their hearts stop and admits he had been watching over her since her first visit. Serilda describes the cage and tapestry, suggesting the drudes guard something the Erlking wants hidden. He pleads with her never to return to that room. She promises not to go back unprepared, then cleans the blood from his temple with her cloak. She tells him she came back to see him. Gild smiles and asks if she would like to help with something important to him.

Gild leads Serilda to the outer castle wall, where he has prepared a crate of small golden trinkets for the townspeople of Adalheid to find. She helps him toss them over the wall. Gild reveals he is Vergoldetgeist and began leaving gifts years ago to amuse himself, only later realizing how vital his generosity has become to the city’s success. Serilda confirms the townspeople are deeply grateful.

Gild mentions that the Erlking recently moved Serilda’s spun gold to an unknown location. He explains he cannot truly befriend the other ghosts because the Erlking controls them, making him an outcast among the castle’s spirits.

Serilda tells Gild about her mother, Idonia, who was taken 16 years ago. Though he cannot recall such a spirit, he promises to investigate. He reveals he has no memory of his own previous life, and none of the other ghosts remember him either.

On the tower stairs, Serilda confronts Gild about his physical distance all night. He apologizes for kissing her, calling it ungentlemanly. Hurt, Serilda reveals it was her first kiss. Gild confesses it was his first as well, as far as he can remember, and admits to his intense loneliness. He tells her that he has never felt this way for anyone. Understanding his desperation for connection, Serilda offers friendship and takes his hand. They embrace, and she realizes she needs the comfort as much as he did. She feels only her own heartbeat as he has no pulse. When the Erlking’s hunting horn sounds, Gild asks if she would like to see his tower.

Gild’s room in the southwest tower is a cozy haven with rugs, books, and a spinning wheel. Standing close, Gild tells Serilda he believes she is destined for something greater and caresses her cheek. Just as they lean in to kiss, Giselle’s enraged scream echoes from below. Gild pulls Serilda into a dark alcove and wraps her cloak around them as Giselle marches past, furious about another of Gild’s prank on the hellhounds—he’d put crushed holly berries in their bedding.

After Giselle leaves, Serilda suggests she wait in the alcove until sunrise. They kiss tenderly, and for Serilda, the moment feels like a promise that she will return. Suddenly, Gild vanishes mid-embrace as dawn breaks and the veil returns. Serilda finds herself alone in the now-ruined alcove. Written in the dust on a nearby shield is a message asking whether she will come back.

Serilda returns to the Wild Swan Inn and sleeps past noon. She wakes to find painful gouges on her shoulder from the drude attack. She decides they don’t require bandaging and catches her own smile in the mirror—seeing it as beautiful for the first time.

Downstairs, she examines her library book with Leyna but finds a frustratingly vague account of Adalheid’s history. Disappointed, she resolves to visit the library itself and invites Leyna along.

Walking through town, they spot fishermen searching for Gild’s gold. When Leyna expresses a wish to enter the castle, Serilda sharply warns her against it, describing the misery and violence within. She through her growing list of questions: Why did the dark ones move to Adalheid? What happened to the spirits? What does the Erlking wants with the gold? Who is Gild really? What happened to her mother? She pleads with Leyna never to put herself in danger.

As they walk, Leyna asks about Serilda’s favorite dessert. When Serilda mentions honey walnut cakes from her childhood, Leyna promises that if Serilda becomes a ghost, she will always leave them for her during the Feast of Death.

At the Adalheid library, Professor Frieda eagerly offers to help them research, but the city ledgers and records yield nothing useful. When Serilda tells them that the Erlking himself mentioned a royal family that used to reside in the castle, Frieda realizes how peculiar it is that the town has no records of its most prominent landmark beyond two or three centuries. Serilda proposes visiting the cemetery, and Frieda agrees.

At the cemetery, Frieda points out a hill covered with hundreds of plain stones marks the graves of unnamed victims left by the hunt. When Serilda asks whether a young woman was found 16 years ago, Frieda reveals the library maintains detailed records of every body discovered—giving Serilda new hope about her mother.

Frieda leads them to a remote corner containing ornate marble gravestones, centuries old, with birth and death dates but completely blank name spaces. Leyna finds one with a crown carved on top. Serilda clears away ivy and discovers an etching of a tatzelwurm entwined around the letter R, with a name space that appears perfectly smooth—as though never carved, rather than worn away by erosion. Leyna hesitantly suggests the names could have been erased with magic, and Serilda and Frieda exchange glances, considering the possibility seriously.