- Miri remembers how Peder told her that quarry-speech felt like singing a song inside, and Miri wants to try to figure out how she can use quarry-speech now that it's worked with Gerti.
- She does a little song and thinks back to the rat incident, and feels a change happen within her. As the girls go back to class, she asks Gerti how she feels—and Gerti says she was just thinking about the rat. So it worked. Cool.
- Miri still doesn't have the hang of it though, and thinks that she'll have to practice a lot more. It seems to only work on Gerti with the rat memory so far.
- The next day Miri invites Britta to go for a walk in the snow—after all, they're both the loners in this group of girls.
- Miri starts to hum in order to try using quarry-speech, but it doesn't seem to work with Britta. Maybe it doesn't work with lowlanders?
- They walk back to class and Britta actually thanks Miri for talking to her. Perhaps Britta isn't stuck up. Perhaps she's just been lonely.
- When they get back into the classroom, Tutor Olana shows them a painting of a big, beautiful house in Asland, the capital of Danland. She tells them that the house will be given to the family of the girl who becomes princess.
- All the girls gasp—they want to be able to give that house to their families, and even Miri, who loves the mountain, feels like she might want to leave now.