Over the winter there is a flareup of ex-Witch's-minions activity, as they are more in their element and someone has either cleverly or maliciously let loose a rumor that the winter is there to stay yet again. Many of these creatures are caught - with most of their captors being quite careful to, in accordance with royal instruction, see to their safety first - and also bring them alive to Cair Paravel for James to have a look at. (Isabella talks to the captives, too, but James is the one with the sense-of-people so keenly necessary in deciding who is safe to let out on probation and who is to be kept in the inescapable dungeons to think about their life choices and be re-interviewed at later dates.)

Isabella has a bag made - the backpack doesn't keep things near enough to hand for her liking, and anyway it looks very odd against the sorts of outfits the dryad wardrobe mistress likes to put her in (whether it's breeches and boots for riding or fine queenly garb for formal occasions). The bag, painted silk (for its strength and softness both) slung messenger-style over her shoulder, has a loop to tuck her scepter into and plenty of room for infinity-notebook, pen, and cordial, as well as any incidentals she picks up.

In the spring (which is met with ecstatic relief by the populace) when it is again possible to build things, the rulers of Narnia establish a handful of schools, although unlike those they remember from Earth these neither favor specific ages (which would be quite absurd in as diverse a country as Narnia anyway) nor demand attendance from anyone who does not care to go. These are soon turned into little library-study-halls where people who know things and people who wish to know things congregate. Isabella allows a dwarf to copy bits of her notes to compile into useful books; it turns out that the infinity notebook will cooperatively open to whatever page she is looking for, but it will do this only for her, and so she doesn't much mind having it in the hands of someone else as long as she opens it to begin with to whatever she wishes to show them.

James's birthday, calculated by subjective days, turns out to fall on Narnia's May 7, and when this is announced it is summarily fused with the nearest preexisting national holiday, a celebration of consistent warmth and sunshine and full of all the usual feasting and dancing and games associated with holidays generally. It is also customary to leave anonymous baskets of small presents ranging from flowers to practical gifts on the doorsteps of neighbors on the previously existing holiday. It is renamed "Kingsday".

Isabella doesn't recalculate her birthday, even though it would have fallen at a similar date; she just "turns twelve" four months after James turns thirteen, under the changing leaves. This allows her to co-opt a harvest-and-arts-and-eating-desserts festival associated with large impromptu markets for trade and display of various crafts and other things ranging from preserves to maple syrup, which suits her just fine. She eats desserts and browses art with the best of them. It is, to match James's, called "Queensday".

The giants to the north make a little trouble not long after this holiday, sensing a soft and juicy target, but the Narnians aren't as soft as all that. A small minority of giants are willing to meet with James for diplomacy when a letter is dropped into their camp by an eagle messenger, but the rest of them have to be driven away by force; James's sword and Isabella's cordial come in handy once again, as does Isabella's unicorn bodyguard from the Battle of Beruna. Eventually the giants are routed from the borders of Narnia.

And eventually Christmas comes again.

Isabella stays up.