Fitz has a list of tasks to accomplish this episode but he is interrupted in the night by Molly, in the morning by Burrich, and finally by the Fool. The last visitor uses all of his wiles to convince Fitz to help him out and let him read Verity's scrolls about the Elderlings and the missing Skill users. After Fitz leaves him, he completes his first axe lesson with Verity riding in his head. Fitz and Verity-as-Ridealong Creeper head to wait on King Shrewd. Finding it a mess and Shrewd in a bad state, Fitz decides to clean up a bit. We discuss how Robin Hobb lays out a framework for the rest of the trilogy and the unfortunate situations arising.