Till We Have Faces

In the tower room, Orual and Psyche comfort each other; Orual is surprised by how calm Psyche is. Psyche seems more concerned about the injuries Orual has sustained than about her own fate, and she insists that Orual not do anything rash, like kill herself, insisting that the Fox will need her.

Unlike Orual, Psyche forgives Redival, claiming she didn’t understand what she was doing. However, she has nothing to say to the King. She tells Orual who should have which of her various possessions and again, Orual is struck—and unnerved by—her composure. At one point, Psyche reprimands Orual for making her cry when she is “to be a bride” (32), and Orual finds that she enjoys her sister’s tears.

Psyche confesses that she is not afraid of the Brute; her only fear is that the gods are not real and she will die of starvation on the mountain. Faced with her impending death, however, her faith in the gods is renewed, and she begins to doubt the Fox’s teachings. She wonders what will happen “if I am indeed to wed a god” (33). Orual hates this idea, rejecting it as a fantasy and asks whether Psyche thinks “the Brute’s lust better than its hunger” (33).