Katabasis

On shore, Peter tries to proceed without Alice. He reminds her she’d have abandoned him to Weaver Girl, and thinks her idea to betray Elspeth was wrong. Alice rushes to catch up with him. They’re both drawn into the water of a bog by the arms of Shades reaching out to grab their legs. Alice gets to shore, but Peter must abandon his backpack to escape.

Peter wants to return and beg for reentry into the world; he sees no way they can make it out alive. Since they don’t know the way back, they continue forward. After Wrath, there are four Courts left: Violence, Cruelty, Tyranny, and an unnamed Court. They pass into Violence and realize they’re walking in a circle, caught in an Escher trap. They fall into a pit and become trapped on Penrose stairs, which take them nowhere, no matter how far they climb. They look for flaws or a pentagram, but the Kripkes hide their work too well.

Peter, distressed, laments being led to death because Alice wanted to be Grimes’s favorite and was in love with him. She corrects him, saying she could finally breathe after he died but went on the journey because she was the one who killed him.