Chapter Summaries

Mills reflected on John Doe, his own actions, and the punishment he received as Antony drove him through the rain. Antony invited Mills to move with him to Seattle, leaving Mills to consider the offer.

• Mills thought about John Doe’s crimes and concluded that the killer had used his religious preaching to justify choosing and punishing victims.
• Mills recalled how his lawyer argued that he had acted as a husband and father after John Doe murdered his family, and that he was sentenced to seven years but never imprisoned.
• Antony asked Mills whether he had traveled to Seattle and described the University of Washington’s views of Mount Rainier.
• Antony said he planned to teach at the University of Washington while continuing his criminal psychology research, then invited Mills to go with him.
• Mills did not answer Antony’s invitation and calmly remarked that it was raining again.

Mills and Antony returned to the station and discussed the dangers of coerced confessions and biased evidence as they waited for O'Sullivan to finish an identification. Antony warned Mills not to trust his instincts too much, but Mills fell asleep before responding.

• Mills reflected on the Golden State Killer, John Doe, and the difficulty of distinguishing criminals from ordinary people.
• At the station, Antony asked Mills whether he knew Peter Riley, who had been coerced into confessing to his mother's murder and imprisoned for twenty years.
• Antony explained how police interrogation and surveillance footage had distorted judgments in Riley's case, leading to his wrongful conviction.
• Antony warned Mills that camera focus and confirmation bias could influence investigators and urged him to remain objective.
• Mills rejected Antony's advice, tightened his trench coat, and fell asleep on the bench.

David Mills recalled a brutal 1989 murder scene before struggling through a disorienting interrogation and hearing his lawyer advise him to claim bipolar disorder. He woke at the Los Angeles Police Department and reaffirmed to O'Sullivan that Doctor Antony was not his partner, suspecting the doctor had used a fake name.

• Mills recalled arriving with O'Sullivan at a Beverly Hills home where a director, his pregnant wife, and others had been murdered.
• Mills remembered the police chief confronting him over killing John Doe without proof that John Doe had committed the murders.
• Mills imagined a lawyer telling him to claim bipolar disorder and blame emotional problems on his father's exposure to manganese.
• Mills woke on a bench at the Los Angeles Police Department with Doctor Antony's coat over him and found O'Sullivan carrying a case file.
• Mills told O'Sullivan that Doctor Antony Marcus was not his partner and suggested that Antony Marcus was a fake name.

Mills, O'Sullivan, and Antony investigated the strange cries and rosary beads connected to Angela, whose Latin recitation quoted Jeremiah. Antony wondered whether her warning that someone was in danger referred to the seriously ill Pope, but the group ended the discussion without resolving what had happened.

• Mills reflected on his father's generation of skyscraper workers and his own path to becoming a police officer.
• After the recording was cleaned, Mills, O'Sullivan, and Antony heard a woman's pained moan and brief catlike cries.
• Antony identified Angela's supposed necklace as Catholic Rosary beads and explained that her Latin words came from Jeremiah's prophecy.
• Antony connected Jeremiah, Shakespeare, and religious history, then suggested Angela's warning about someone in danger might concern the Pope.
• O'Sullivan sent everyone home to rest, and Mills left muttering that an asylum might be more normal.

Joseph discussed faith, technology, exorcism, and the nature of the soul with the Pope, Archbishop Harvey, and Corrado Balducci over lunch. He requested Lourdes Spring water for the Blessed Spring ceremony, arguing that holy relics and sacred water could provide protection against demonic forces.

• The Pope invited Joseph to join lunch with Archbishop Harvey and Corrado Balducci, who discussed his reputation as an Exorcist.
• Joseph argued that unchecked technological power was dangerous and that reverence, rather than science, could restrain humanity.
• Joseph asked to use Lourdes Spring water for the Blessed Spring ceremony and said he needed relics to build a defense against demons.
• Joseph debated exorcism and the soul with Corrado Balducci and Archbishop Harvey, then said blood must possess power because Longinus regained his sight from the Precious Blood.
• The chapter noted that the Blessed Spring ceremony would take place on the Saturday before Easter and that its sacred water was believed to transform humanity.

Joseph recalled Galileo’s trial while discussing faith, science, and Church politics with Archbishop Harvey. Their conversation ended with Joseph asking Harvey whether he had ever visited Orvieto.

• Joseph recalled how Galileo was tried in Rome after Copernicus appeared in his Dialogue, despite the supposed 1616 pledge lacking Galileo’s signature.
• Harvey recognized Joseph from earlier public events, and Joseph explained that his reference to a pillow alluded to Dante’s account of the Marquis of Ferrara’s murder.
• Over dinner, Joseph quoted Jung on Eastern religious beliefs and challenged Harvey to consider whether Jung and the Tibetan lamas were right.
• Harvey told Joseph that Corrado Balducci considered him a fraud and had planned to exploit the pope’s illness, but that Joseph had won.
• Joseph questioned Harvey about the pope’s planned retirement and warned that Protestants’ anxieties could drive them toward Eastern paganism.
• Joseph discussed the Eucharist and Thanksgiving, then asked Harvey whether he had ever been to Orvieto.

Pomona met Nakamura Xue, who discussed the brain’s insula and a drug that suppressed addiction but also sex drive and appetite. Their conversation about ghosts and an approaching solar eclipse left Pomona thinking that an eclipse might be a sign directing attention somewhere.

• Pomona came downstairs and found Nakamura Xue eating ice cream, while Severus initially stayed behind.
• Nakamura Xue asked whether Severus was Pomona’s husband, and Severus greeted her with a kiss on the hand before leaving.
• Nakamura Xue explained how the insula affected judgment and described her mother’s drug and its side effects.
• Pomona challenged Nakamura Xue to prove that souls existed by first proving that ghosts existed, then recalled that the Basilisk had affected ghosts too.
• Nakamura Xue asked about a past Indonesian holiday and the coming solar eclipse, and Pomona remembered her thought that an eclipse might be like a pointer’s shadow drawing attention to a place.

Veronica urged Fabio to forgive their estranged grandfather and reconcile him with Grandma, while Mills arrived at a hotel to investigate a haunting. The chapter left Mills waiting at the front desk as a woman answered from behind the counter.

• Veronica met Uncle Fabio on the street in a nun’s habit, and he confronted her about her clothes and plans to become a nun.
• Veronica asked Fabio to forgive Grandpa and help him reunite with Grandma before it was too late, and Fabio said the matter was his to consider.
• Veronica told Fabio she had only taken her first vow and hugged him after he praised her appearance.
• Mills rode to a hotel in Los Angeles to investigate the haunting of Room 64 and reflected on his relationship with Tracy and their aging dogs.
• Mills rang the hotel’s front-desk bell, and a woman called out that she was coming.

Inspector Mills checked into the Mandala Hotel to investigate its suspected haunting and began documenting his findings about Angela Warren’s Rosary. After a conversation with Tracy, he experienced a sudden visual illusion that made his typewriter look like a box opened with a dagger.

• Mills inspected his room at the Mandala Hotel as the manager warned him about its suicides and a suspected murder.
• Mills found a strong, temple-like fragrance in the closet and prepared to type up his investigation notes.
• Mills recorded that Angela Warren’s Rosary held fifty-nine beads, apparently made from the teeth of multiple people.
• Tracy told Mills the story of the Affair of the Diamond Necklace while he worked.
• Mills saw a flash of white light and mistook his typewriter for a delivery box sliced open with a dagger.

Pomona and Nakamura Xue discussed Xue’s childhood encounter with a monk, her family’s expectations, and their complicated feelings about marriage and work. They left the museum visit undecided, while Xue suggested she might go to Britain as an exchange student instead.

• Pomona decided against taking a drunk Nakamura Xue to a museum and asked her about the story behind her childhood dream.
• Nakamura Xue told Pomona that she had been lost for weeks as a child after meeting the yokai Blue Monk, and described her distant mother and family’s plans to arrange her marriage.
• Pomona shared that she had miscarried, felt exhausted by marriage, and often considered divorcing her husband so she could return to her career.
• Nakamura Xue teased Pomona that her husband’s love was what made it difficult for her to focus on work, then advised her not to force a decision.
• Pomona showed Nakamura Xue her Occamy and asked whether she believed in magic, and Xue said she might leave Italy to study in Britain.

Mills searched room 64 and dreamed that he found a hidden compartment containing a strange silver box before a waiter with a rabbit’s face appeared. After waking, he learned more about the room’s history and grieved over Tracy’s death, left alone to endure the night.

• Mills searched the ransacked room and found a hidden compartment behind the safe in his dream, where he discovered a sealed silver box that carried a familiar fragrance.
• Mills realized the waiter had a rabbit’s face and woke in the room, with the safe unmoved and the hidden compartment still undiscovered.
• Mills read a preliminary report saying the prayer beads were made from human teeth and shells, then decided to ask O'Sullivan for help the next day.
• Mills called the hotel manager, learned the closet had once been a fireplace, and asked him to find the room’s old registration records.
• Mills looked at Tracy’s rabbit keychain, mourned her death, and sobbed alone as he faced spending the night without a home.

Joseph visited David Mills, who had spent almost two years shut away in darkness after returning from a sanatorium, and argued with his mother about his condition. Later, Joseph reflected on faith, illusion, and Mills’s mental state before being startled by a thought about psychoanalyzing the Pope.

• Joseph found Mills living in a pitch-black room and learned from Mrs. Mills that he had been this way for almost two years.
• Mrs. Mills insisted David was only grieving his late wife and blamed Joseph’s group for what had happened to him.
• Joseph told Mrs. Mills he had come to see an old friend, not to preach.
• Joseph turned off the television and considered how fear and illness drove people toward miracles, magic, and superstition.
• Joseph reflected on illusion, nihilism, and how close Mills had been to true bipolar disorder when Joseph had found him.
• Joseph suddenly wondered whether he dared psychoanalyze the Pope, then looked around and found himself alone.

Pomona followed suspicious priests from Venice to Poveglia Island, where Voldemort revealed that he was possessing her and demanded Severus’s help with his resurrection. She was left trapped on the island, hoping Severus would refuse to brew the potion Voldemort needed.

• Pomona recounted the haunting reputation of The Nun and reflected that cursed objects could become vessels for spirits.
• Pomona followed several priests from Caffè Florian onto a motorboat bound for Poveglia Island.
• Pomona reached the island with the priests and felt its cold, oppressive atmosphere as they went ashore.
• Voldemort told Pomona he had found her through the Dark Mark on Severus’s arm and admitted he had wanted to kill Severus but could not wait.
• Pomona realized she was Voldemort’s hostage and hoped Severus would refuse to brew the potion that could resurrect him.

Pomona followed a group of priests across Poveglia Island while Voldemort lectured her about religion, knowledge, and the conflict between wizards and Muggles. Their argument turned to Severus, power, and Voldemort’s cruelty, and Pomona wondered whether a church might have taken in Merope before Tom Riddle was born.

• Pomona felt sorry for the priests trudging through the bone-ash soil, and Voldemort challenged her sympathy for them.
• Voldemort explained Herpo’s view of himself and the relationship between light, darkness, religion, and knowledge, comparing the priests’ fear to a Basilisk’s instinctive fear of a rooster.
• Voldemort said Severus had studied his translated alchemical texts and described him as talented but not fully loyal.
• Voldemort urged Pomona to endure pain and punishment in pursuit of magical power, while Pomona rejected his violence and said she did not want to become like him.
• As the priests moved farther away, Pomona wondered what might have happened if Merope had knocked on a church door instead of the orphanage’s.

Pomona and Voldemort discussed holy water, alchemy, and the secret of life and death while watching monks search Poveglia Island. Pomona reflected on the island’s grim history and on Albus as she watched the elderly monks.

• Pomona asked Voldemort whether holy water could repel the island’s evil spirits, and he explained its alchemical symbolism and role in his resurrection potion.
• Voldemort revealed that he had watched Draco’s attempt to poison Albus and recalled that Ron had nearly died after consuming the Weasley twins’ concoction.
• Pomona remembered Albus’s belief that alchemy had to be understood through experience and thought about how few people could grasp such knowledge.
• Pomona watched the monks working in the clearing and reflected on their return to a life of spirituality and on Albus.

Voldemort explained to Pomona how he used alchemy and darkness to create a body for his resurrection, while they debated souls, fate, and Severus. Their conversation ended when a masked, disgraced Mahoutokoro student emerged from the forest, leaving Pomona to wonder what had happened.

• Voldemort described how the Philosopher's Stone and a body born from darkness let him attach his soul to a new form.
• Pomona and Voldemort discussed Severus, Lily, fate, and whether newborn children had souls.
• Voldemort teased Pomona about love and privacy, making her realize he had been joking.
• A masked student in whitened Mahoutokoro robes appeared from the forest.
• Voldemort asked whether Pomona thought the student had done it, and Pomona drew her wand.

Pomona subdued Katori Hideki and let him escape, then used Legilimency on a priest to learn that a monk had been killed after a suspected possession at a monastery. Voldemort asked to return instead of investigating, leaving Pomona with the mystery unresolved.

• Pomona recalled how Quirrell had sought out Dark wizards, been possessed by Voldemort, and died after Voldemort fled his body.
• Voldemort laughed as Katori Hideki escaped from Poveglia Island, then told Pomona to capture a priest and use Legilimency on him.
• Pomona bound the priests with vines, put several to sleep, and searched the remaining priest's memories.
• Pomona learned that a monk had been killed at a monastery after a patient became unnaturally strong and spoke of ashes being scattered over his face.
• Voldemort asked whether Pomona knew the monastery's location, then decided they should return and asked what they would have for dinner.

Mills found an antique Japanese silver box hidden in a cookie tin, then was drawn into a haunting vision that urged him to jump from a cliff. Jim saved him with a bucket of ice water and identified the box as part of a yokai love story.

• Mills and Jim Wilson moved the safe and found a cookie tin containing old coins and a silver box labeled White Chrysanthemum Maru.
• Jim began researching the box while Mills smelled chrysanthemums and saw a vision of cherry blossoms and memories of Tracy.
• Mills saw an androgynous youth in a kimono leap into a sea and heard a voice accuse him of breaking a promise.
• Jim poured ice water over Mills and pulled him back from the window as Mills resisted an unseen force urging him to jump.
• Jim found a Japanese yokai tale about the monk Qingxuan and White Chrysanthemum Maru, whose silver boxes had been tokens of their love.

Jim recounted Qingxuan and Sakurahime’s tragic history to Mills, who dismissed it as unbelievable. The mandrake flowers’ illusions left the story’s reincarnation and reality uncertain, before an elevator chime snapped Mills back to awareness.

• Jim told Mills how Qingxuan loved Sakurahime, who became the courtesan Wind Chime Princess while he raised her child and continued to long for her.
• Zangetsu and Nagaura poisoned and strangled Qingxuan to steal his pouch, but he revived briefly before Gonsuke accidentally killed him with a sword.
• Qingxuan’s ghost told Sakurahime that Gonsuke had killed her family and stolen Demon Cutter, so Sakurahime killed Gonsuke and her son and reclaimed the sword.
• Mills reacted in disbelief to Jim’s account, and Jim offered to show him what he had been doing under the flowers’ influence.
• The mandrake flowers’ poisonous scent and reflections raised doubts about whether White Chrysanthemum Maru and Sakurahime were real or illusions.
• An elevator chime startled Mills back to clarity as the account noted that Utagawa Kuniyoshi painted ukiyo-e.

Joseph consulted Father Gordon’s restricted investigation records and found a photograph labeled “Valak,” then pressed Corrado Balducci for details about Gordon’s time in Romania. Balducci offered to reveal what happened if Joseph accompanied him to Albania after the Pope was safe.

• Joseph searched Father Gordon’s files for information about his visit to a Romanian monastery but found no entry in the contents.
• While scholars discussed the disappearance of Loulan, Joseph found a photograph of a nun labeled “Valak?” and began reading its file.
• Corrado Balducci confronted Joseph in the archives, and Joseph asked him what Gordon had done in Romania around 1950.
• Balducci said he had investigated an abandoned castle in Albania and offered to explain Gordon’s past if Joseph went with him after the Pope was safe.
• Joseph closed the folder, returned it to the service desk, and suggested that they continue their conversation elsewhere.