Opening
In these chapters, Prince Cardan begins to understand why the mortal Jude Duarte unsettles him—and why he can’t stop watching her. His desire to escape his fate through Nicasia pulls him to the sea, only for the Undersea to strip away his illusions and send him back to land, and to Jude.
What Happens
Chapter 5: The Prince of Elfhame Is Mildly Inconvenienced
Cardan first fixates on Jude because she feels different: imperfect, solid, human. He notices the “odd curve of her ear” and the way she presses into the world, leaving footprints in the forest while the fae glide without a trace. What begins as smug superiority curdles into discomfort—her marks on the earth make her seem like “the only real thing in a land of ghosts,” and he recognizes a growing fracture in his own Identity and Self-Perception.
At the palace school, observation turns to resentment. Cardan watches Jude and Taryn whisper together as though they belong. Jude trains with Madoc and grows skilled enough with a blade that Cardan, sparring with her, can almost believe she isn’t letting him win. He sneers that her effort will “never win her anything,” yet Nicasia’s casual dismissal of the twins as “mortals” only sharpens his unease. He realizes he has never tried for anything—an admission that births jealousy, then cruelty, as armor against what Jude’s effort reveals about him.
Chapter 6: The Prince of Elfhame Gets Wet
Lying on a bed of moss with Nicasia, Cardan trades secrets. She speaks of the Undersea’s dangers, and he confesses the prophecy shadowing his childhood: he is fated to be “the destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne,” a story that frames his father’s hatred and his own fatalism—a prime example of The Power and Peril of Stories. When Nicasia invites him to flee Elfhame and live beneath the waves, he thrills at the chance to spite his family, imagining himself as the Undersea’s consort and hero.
Nicasia enchants him to breathe underwater and draws him into her realm. The sea answers his dream with terror: biting cold, salt that mutes his magic, and a darkness “like being trapped in a small room.” Without footholds, stages, or witty games, he feels erased. Even Jude’s “footprints” could not survive here, washed away instantly—and the thought tightens his panic. He bursts back to the surface, trying to mask his horror as Nicasia’s disappointment sets in.
Walking the shore, he tells himself he could adapt. Instead, his mind returns to Jude: the ear’s curve, the weighted step, the checked blow. He pushes the images away, but his refusal of the sea clarifies everything. He and Nicasia are fundamentally misaligned, and Jude’s solidity—her ability to leave a mark—has become the axis of his desire and his dread.
Character Development
Cardan’s gaze sharpens into self-knowledge. Jude’s presence exposes his hollowness; the prophecy explains his fatalism; the Undersea proves that escape costs his very self.
- Prince Cardan:
- Converts envy into cruelty to defend against inadequacy and desire
- Admits, if only inwardly, that he has never striven for anything
- Rejects the Undersea when it threatens to dissolve his identity, tethering him to Elfhame’s ground and games
- Nicasia:
- Offers love, protection, and a future in her world
- Cannot grasp Cardan’s terror in the sea, revealing an irreconcilable difference
- Jude Duarte:
- Becomes a symbol of reality and effort—someone who leaves marks where fae do not
- Occupies Cardan’s thoughts as the embodiment of the solidity he both resents and craves
Themes & Symbols
Cardan’s bullying of Jude reads as Cruelty as a Defense Mechanism: a performance of power that hides fear of insignificance. Jude’s relentless effort confronts him with what he lacks, so he tries to diminish her to protect himself. That same insecurity fuses with the prophecy, shaping his [identity and self-perception] as doomed; he plays the villain because the story has already cast him.
The chapters also interrogate the [power and peril of stories]. The prophecy isn’t just a prediction—it is a narrative that controls how Cardan is treated and how he sees himself. His brief fantasy of the Undersea is an attempt to rewrite the script, but the sea’s formlessness threatens to erase him altogether. Two key symbols sharpen this contrast:
- Footprints: Jude’s prints in the soil affirm presence, effort, and consequence—everything Cardan fears he lacks.
- The Undersea: Beautiful but obliterating; it mutes his magic, blurs boundaries, and dissolves identity.
Key Quotes
“The only real thing in a land of ghosts.” This reorients Cardan’s attraction and hatred: Jude’s human tangibility punctures the fae illusion of weightlessness, forcing him to recognize his own lack of substance.
“He had never tried like that for anything in his life.” A moment of raw self-awareness that turns envy into malice. It explains why Jude’s effort bothers him—her striving indicts his apathy.
“The destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne.” The prophecy functions as a story that scripts Cardan’s role and relationships. It justifies cruelty he receives and rationalizes self-sabotage he inflicts.
“Like being trapped in a small room.” The Undersea’s sensory oppression collapses Cardan’s dream of escape. Instead of freedom, he meets a void that wipes out all the tools—wit, grace, spectacle—he uses to exist.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters recalibrate Cardan’s entire arc. They root his antagonism toward Jude in envy and longing, not mere sadism, and ground his fatalism in the prophecy that others weaponize against him. The failed flight to the Undersea marks the quiet end of his romance with Nicasia and affirms the axis of his story: he belongs to land, to courts and consequences, and to the mortal girl who leaves footprints where he cannot.