- The next morning, though, they wake up to more trumpeting—it turns out soldiers are coming to collect all the girls. Guess Miri doesn't have a choice after all. Yikes…
- Marda doesn't make the cut because she's older than the prince, but Miri has to go because the soldiers threaten to arrest her father.
- She goes to the village square with the rest of the girls, and Marda brings along her belongings; Peder also comes out to say goodbye because his sister is being taken away as well.
- The girls hold hands and walk up the mountain together, unsure of what's to come. Only Britta—a lowlander who came to Mount Eskel to live with relatives after being orphaned—isn't included in the group. She's delicate and has an aristocratic bearing. Typical lowlander.
- Esa, Peder's sister, mentions that Peder thinks Britta is pretty. Bummer for Miri.
- They finally get to the grand old house at the mountain pass, and an intimidating woman introduces herself as Tutor Olana. She says she'll have her job cut out for her trying to transform all these highlander girls into ladies who are worthy of being the princess. She also says that they all stink. What a nice lady.
- When they get into the classroom, Tutor Olana singles Britta out and says that she expects that as a lowlander, Britta will be the head of the class and lead her classmates in their studies. All the other girls immediately glare at her.
- Tutor Olana starts off the class by explaining how to read. She asks Britta to demonstrate, but Britta says she doesn't know how even though Miri is certain that she's seen Britta reading to herself before. Hmm, why would she lie about that?
- A girl named Gerti speaks out of turn—violating one of Tutor Olana's rules—and is locked in the closet as punishment.
- After their studies, the girls all eat and then settle in for bed. They're lonely and anxious about being at the academy; Miri just wants to go home.