Tella ascends the Golden Tower to visit the empress. Guards stop her at the top, but they allow her to pass when she announces that Elantine has invited her. The empress looks sickly and frail: a sharp contrast to her healthy appearance on the night that was supposed to be the fourth night of Caraval. Elantine admits that she is dying and that her appearance the other night was due to a tonic from Legend to hide her condition from Jacks. When Tella asks about Paradise, Elantine recounts the last time that she saw the thief—when Paradise stole the Deck of Destiny. The empress warned Paradise that the cards would bring trouble, but Tella’s mother did not listen. Tella questions whether Paradise loved her, and Elantine assures her that Paradise loved deeply and would therefore love her daughter too much to cause her harm willingly. As Tella and the empress talk, the tower shakes, and Tella’s crown falls to the floor and becomes a replica of the Shattered Crown. Her mother’s ring changes colors at almost the same moment—it is no longer cursed. Dante has found the loophole, and Tella can now enter the vault and reclaim the Deck of Destiny.