Elise awakes from a nightmare of the death of the Mystic, and takes a late night stroll through the de Bellefeuille grounds. She acts suspicious of a Zerda gardener working late into the night, and at last meanders through a hedge maze, falling asleep upon a bench, lamenting her situation.

Elise dreams, finding herself as "Lady Elise" once more, in a more lavish part of the Carnival of Inala. She is joined by Kensington, the Korv corsair, and they head to a performance called "The Masters of the Dance" – a musical aerial ballet. There, Elise watches the story unfold, seeing some similarities – but also some differences – between the story of the protagonist and of herself. The foppish fox appears again, goading Elise on to do something rather than just sitting and watching shows.

Elise, determined to regain her lost identity, returns to the Hall of Mirrors. She has no ticket, and the barker will not let her in without one, so she overpowers the barker and marches on in. She is distracted by a mirror reflection of herself as an Inquisitrix, supposing that this might be her "true self", but finds the Inquisitrix "Aspect" to be a cruel parody of herself and her intentions. She wrests herself away from this doppleganger, hurrying along, and at last comes upon Envoy and another doppleganger – her Warrior Aspect. There is a bit of a standoff, but Envoy plays peacemaker, convincing the Warrior Elise that she needs the Lady Aspect, and vice versa, if they are to find the true Elise once more.

A truce is reached, and they head off to the reflectionless mirror that Envoy found earlier. There, the two Aspects gaze into the mirror … and are replaced by the true Elise once more. Thus restored, Elise accompanies Envoy, and they head back out of the Hall of Mirrors, ready to explore the rest of Inala's challenge.