Incarceron

Claudia tears up her wedding dress and goes to her father’s study with Jared. She sits in the Warden’s chair, which appears to be the portal. Jared presses a button that creates a flash of light and makes her disappear into Incarceron.

Jared goes upstairs to the hall where the wedding will soon begin. The Warden is looking at his watch and frowning. Sia sends a servant to Claudia’s room to find her, but he returns with the torn-up dress. Jared claims that Claudia has fled on a horse and returned home. The Warden orders a patrol to follow her. Suddenly, Evian appears and stabs the Queen, wounding her but not killing her. Guards descend on Evian, who then stabs himself and dies by suicide. The Warden locks Jared in his room and orders guards to keep him inside, take his devices away, and allow no visitors.

Claudia teleports into a cell. The door is open, so she exits, but she doesn’t know where the others are. She tries using the key to speak to them, but it no longer works. Instead, Incarceron speaks to her, offering to lead her toward Finn if she refrains from using the key. Incarceron also wants Claudia to explain what the Outside is like, because it longs to escape from itself. Claudia agrees, not realizing that Incarceron isn’t trustworthy.

Incarceron informs Finn that Claudia is now inside, but Incarceron plans to keep them away from each other. Incarceron magnetizes a wall so that metal objects fly to it and attach themselves. At first, Finn gets stuck to the wall because he is holding a knife, but when he lets go, he is freed. Keiro gets stuck and cannot extricate himself because he is actually a “half-man” and is partially made of metal. Incarceron stops the magnet trick, and everything falls off the wall.

Claudia realizes that Incarceron might be taking her in the wrong direction. Incarceron says that even if Finn is Giles, he is not the same Giles that Claudia remembers, because imprisonment changes people for the worse. Incarceron contends that Finn will not make a good ruler. Claudia activates her key to make herself invisible to Incarceron.

Keiro has always known that he was a half-man, but he never told tell anyone. This confuses Finn, because Keiro hates half-men more than others do. Keiro says his hatred stems from his knowledge that he is also a half-man; his nature frightens him because he doesn’t know which parts of his insides are made of metal. All he knows for sure is that one of his fingers is metal, even though it looks like real flesh. Finn reassures Keiro that his status as a half-man is not important. Suddenly, the group encounters Claudia.

Guards bring Jared to the Warden. No horses have disappeared, so the Warden knows that Claudia has not returned to their estate. Now, he thinks that by saying “home,” Jared meant Incarceron. He realizes that Claudia probably took the key with her, which is good, because it is impossible to escape Incarceron without it. The Warden admits that Helena really died in childbirth; they had a daughter, but the baby died shortly thereafter. The Warden went into Incarceron and found a mother who was struggling financially. She sold her newborn to the Warden to make enough money to keep her other children alive. Nobody but Sia realized that the Warden had a different baby. This is how Sia blackmailed the Warden into imprisoning Giles and faking his death.

The Warden leads Jared to the cellars. They enter the study, where screens show different parts of the prison. The Warden explains that he and the previous wardens kept Incarceron’s failure a secret because there is no way to extract the inmates from the prison. They scroll through the prison’s images until they find Claudia, then turn the sound on so that they can hear her speaking to the group.

Claudia wants to bring everyone Outside but doesn’t know how. Most of all, she wants Finn to escape and become king. She also hopes that because he knows the truth about Incarceron, he might be able to tell others about it and end its existence. Attia thinks that the Outside might still be a “prison,” but a different type than Incarceron. Claudia thinks the key might let them all escape, but she doesn’t know how to do it.

Blaize’s face appears in a wall; Blaize is actually the Warden. He has not entered the prison, but he can make his face appear as he speaks to the group. The Warden says that the key will only transport one person at a time, not everyone. To teleport out, the person must touch the eagle’s eye. The copy may or may not work, but if it does, it will also only transport one person. Claudia points out that he transported her as a baby, but the Warden thinks this only worked because she was so small. Finn says that if he and Claudia use the two keys to leave, he will return and free everyone else, but they doubt this. Keiro wants to go first, so he fights with Finn and grabs the key. When he touches the eye, there is a flash of light, but Keiro doesn’t teleport away. Keiro wants to cut his finger off to make the key work, but Attia stops him, reminding him that his vital organs might also be made of metal. Keiro returns the key to Finn. The Warden orders Claudia and Finn to return. Guards are at his study door, and he needs to prove that Giles/Finn is still alive. Suddenly, Incarceron states that it doesn’t want to let anyone leave.

Incarceron causes a prison quake. The Warden cannot command Incarceron to stop because it has a will of its own. Sia now suspects that the Warden was conspiring with Evian to assassinate her, which means that he and Jared will likely both be killed if the guards get into the study. The Warden decides to use a translation device to speak to Incarceron in the old language that its creators spoke, to trick it.

Gildas wonders if there is another way out of Incarceron, because he doesn’t think that Sapphique had a key. His injuries have worsened, and he is close to death. Finn takes Gildas into a vision to show him stars, which delights Gildas.

The Warden speaks to Incarceron in the old Sapienti language, claiming to be Sapphique and asking Incarceron not to hurt Finn. Incarceron asks “Sapphique” how he escaped and where he is now. The Warden won’t say. Incarceron says that Sapphique is the only person who can help it, when he returns.

Finn’s vision ends, and so does the prison quake. Gildas dies. Keiro and Attia tell Finn and Claudia to go. Finn promises to come back for them later, speculating that as king, he could order Sapienti to create a new key to free half-men too.

Claudia teleports back to her father’s study. Finn also teleports, but on the way, he has a vision in which he talks to Sapphique, who admits that the Outside wasn’t what he expected. Maestra also appears and asks Finn to learn from his mistake of letting her die. Finn then appears in the Warden’s study.

The Warden says that whether or not Finn is really Giles, they have to “make” him Giles to avoid being killed. He admits to Claudia that, at first, she was just a tool in his scheme, but over time, he came to love her as a daughter.

The Warden lets Sia in and tells her that he has found a way to save everyone from assassinations and spilled secrets. He announces to the guards and servants that Sia put Giles in Incarceron to protect him against others who wanted to kill him. Now, the conspirators have been apprehended, so Giles can be free. The Queen pretends to be delighted and invites everyone to celebrate. The Warden transports himself into Incarceron, presumably because he can tell that the Queen is angry and would seek revenge on him if he were to stay. Claudia promises Finn that they will find a way to rescue Keiro and Attia someday. Jared has the Warden’s watch and tells Claudia and Finn that Incarceron is just a tiny charm hanging from it.