In this chapter, the third-person narrator describes a game being played. The game is called Pioneers. Sadie’s alter ego, a pregnant Emily B. Marks, arrives in a vaguely 19th-century American town called Friendship. She decides to settle in the town’s remote neighborhood, Upper Foglands, with only a blue mare called Pixel for company and transport. She doesn’t take the option of marrying someone. Instead, she chooses to set up a bookstore selling cards and games called Friendship Books. Emily decides she needs new glasses and visits the town’s optometrist, Dr. Edna Daedalus. Sadie-as-Emily notes that Dr. Daedalus has black, curly hair like Sam but brushes the thought aside. Emily and Dr. Daedalus strike up a friendship. Emily visits Dr. Daedalus’s mansion in Verdant Valley, and the two play board games and parlor games.

After some time, Dr. Daedalus suggests Emily move in with her as a partner. The relationship doesn’t need to be romantic. Emily discusses the idea with Alabaster Brown, her nearest neighbor. Alabaster suggests Emily accept the proposal since she wants to become pregnant, and the game’s algorithm may not allow unmarried pregnancies. Emily and Dr. Daedalus get married and soon have a child named Ludo Quintus Marks Daedalus, but they maintain separate residences.