Neal and Jake escape from Garten. While on the run, they meet a farmer who helps them out. Jake is sick with snowcold, and Neal keeps him safe by lying to the farmer about who they are. They leave as soon as they can. The farmer points them in the direction of the Cloud-jumpers. Micah, King of the Cloud-Jumpers, meets them at the tree line of the Cloud-Jumper domain. After ordering that Jake be taken to the domain's Tree, Micah asks Neal what happened two hundred years before. Neal reluctantly tells him what he remembers of the last days of the battle. Micah wants to help, but Neal decides to let himself be recaptured by Garten.