Legendary

The performance of Legend’s actor depicts how the Fates trapped humans in cards out of boredom by writing their names on the blank cards. Once trapped, the Fates could play with the humans however they wished, and if they ever got bored with a particular human, they could simply free that person and write a new human’s name on the card to trap someone else. Tella asks Jacks if this is how it really happened; although Jacks does not directly confirm this, he acknowledges that the Fates are cruel and have no goodness in them. However, he insists that he only chases Legend out of self-defense. After the performance ends, the empress has a coughing fit and sends Jacks to get her some water. While he is away, she recovers and quickly asks Tella why she is with the man who is trying to steal the empress’s throne. Tella tells a partial truth and says that Jacks has her mother trapped. Later that night, Tella checks the Aracle card (the one card that she kept from the Deck of Destiny as a child) to see what her future holds. However, she trusts it less and less as she wonders whether the Aracle is showing her whatever she wants to see in order to achieve Jacks’s goal of setting the Fates free.

Caraval’s fifth night begins, and Tella proceeds to the Temple District, following the new clue that her mother’s ring is a key for something in the Temple of the Stars. She traverses the district wearing the outfit that all temple acolytes wear, but when she arrives, she finds Dante waiting for her. He tells her that she has the rope on her costume tied incorrectly. He offers to fix the binding for her, and she hesitantly accepts his offer. She wants to resist his charm. She does not want to be enamored with him, and she refuses to acknowledge how he makes her feel. She wants to push him away, but she cannot force herself to do so. To distract herself, she looks at the statues around the courtyard, which depict the Stars and the humans willing to sacrifice anything to appease them. Once Dante finishes fixing her garment, she walks toward the temple door. Dante follows. A guardian and acolyte named Theron opens the door.

Theron guides Dante and Tella deeper into the Temple of the Stars. Before gaining information, they must prove that they are there to follow the Stars and not for other purposes. Before the test begins, Tella sees Theron’s ring, which is similar to her mother’s, and asks about it. Theron explains that the ring is a key to one of their vaults, but the key is cursed due to an unpaid debt by the owner. Because Tella shares blood with Paradise, she pricks her finger to reveal the debt, showing that Paradise gave Tella to the Temple of the Stars in exchange for protecting the Deck of Destiny. Tella flees the temple before Dante or Theron can speak. She runs until she finds herself in a park, where a festival is taking place. Once she slows down, the cold catches up with her, and she steals a cloak from a vendor. The vendor attempts to strangle her, but Dante rescues her and acquires the cloak by threatening to have the vendor arrested. Tella rages about her realization that her mother sold her like an object. She rescinds all of her prayers to find Paradise alive and declares that she wants to go somewhere to forget.

Dante takes Tella to the ruins of a governor’s house, where a fountain continually pours red water and is rumored to be able to make a person forget anyone or anything. According to legend, the house belonged to a governor who planned to kill his wife so that he could marry his mistress. However, the wife made a deal with a Fate called the Poisoner, ensuring that her husband would forget everyone except her. When the governor nearly lost his position because of this deal, the wife made a second deal to restore his memory and to acquire the power to make him forget a single person. While the wife carried a pitcher of wine poisoned with blood to make her husband forget his lover, he made his own deal with a Fate, and the wife turned to stone even as she poured the tainted liquid out of the pitcher. Dante and Tella kiss after he finishes telling the story, and, for the first time, Tella believes that someone can love her. She now questions whether the Fates have power over her or if she gave them influence by believing their prophecies. However, when the kiss ends, she pulls away to find her mouth dripping with blood.

Tella steps away from Dante to wash the blood away. He asks her not to run again, and she promises not to. After she washes her face, she tells Dante the truth—everything from the Fated Ball to the present moment. He feels responsible because he first told the lie that Tella is engaged to Jacks, but Tella now believes that everything would have happened anyway. Dante tells Tella to return to the palace because he still has work to do that night, but he asks her to meet him on the Temple of the Stars stairs the following evening, which is Elantine’s Eve, the final night of Caraval. She tries to follow him to prove that his word is trustworthy, but she loses him quickly. She takes a sky carriage to the palace; the passengers in the car before her take their time disembarking. When they do, she recognizes both Jacks and her sister, Scarlet.

Tella leaves the sky carriage terminal and encounters Jacks, who only explains that Scarlet sought him out. He does not explain why. Tella attacks him for all the taunting and cruelty he has put her through. Although he does not back down from the attack, his heart races, and Tella feels her heartbeat change as well. She realizes that she is the true love of the Prince of Hearts, so his kiss—which caused her slowing heartbeat—cannot kill her. He reminds her that her mother is still trapped. Although Tella has conflicting feelings about her mother and about Dante, whom she believes to be Legend, she must nonetheless prepare to turn Dante over to Jacks. The only thing that can prevent this is if Dante can find the loophole to help her end Caraval without risking everyone’s lives. Once inside, Tella first visits Scarlet’s room, but her sister does not answer. Tella wants to demand further answers, but fatigue takes over. She returns to her room to rest and prepare for the final night of Caraval. While she walks, she considers the option of not winning Caraval, in which case she would not hand the Deck of Destiny to either Legend or Jacks, forever keeping it out of their reach.

Tella wakes and feels her heart racing—further proof that Jacks’s curse no longer affects her. She receives a letter from Elantine, which offers assistance in finding Tella’s mother, whom the empress concludes is Paradise the Lost. Tella forgoes her previous decision to avoid participating in the games and instead chooses to play. A servant delivers her costume from Minerva and helps Tella to dress for the evening. The servant becomes nervous when she realizes that Tella is attending in the guise of Elantine’s Lost Heir; rumor has it that the lost heir has returned and that the empress is sick. Tella dismisses the servant and finishes putting on the headdress, which she accidentally breaks so that it looks like an unbroken version of the Shattered Crown. She leaves to visit the empress, but she tucks the Aracle card, the card containing her mother, and the luckless coin into her pocket before she leaves.