Recaps

Angel learned that prophecies foretold the Apocalypse in 1368 and that Bernadette’s attempt to prevent a catastrophe had failed to stop the war from spreading. She then met Klein in Saint Samuel Cathedral, confronted him over his risky deception, and accepted his apology before drawing him into an embrace.

• Klein told Angel and Bernadette that prophecies named 1368 as the year of the Apocalypse and foretold a savior, while Bernadette explained that such predictions had circulated since the beginning of the Fifth Epoch.
• Bernadette said her Sequence 2 advancement ritual had led her to prepare for a catastrophe in Backlund, but Feysac’s war and the Earth Mother Church’s intervention had made the crisis worse.
• Bernadette warned that Nast Solomon’s flagship and a Loen Navy ironclad had disappeared, possibly while searching for the Ghost Empire, and Angel promised to contact a royal Duchess for information.
• Angel met Klein in Saint Samuel Cathedral and scolded him for using Amon’s traits to deceive and intimidate her and Bernadette.
• Klein acknowledged that the Red Angel’s influence might have made him overconfident and apologized, and Angel embraced him in the Mirror World.

Angel concluded that the Loen royal family and Nast were racing to find the Ghost Empire, so she left Backlund for the sea after alerting Anne and praying to the Evernight Goddess. In Bayam, she unexpectedly found Fors in a tavern, who prepared to flee when Angel entered.

• Angel inferred that Duchess Georgina had taken a Loen ironclad to search for the Ghost Empire and decided to contact Nast before the royal family claimed its treasures.
• Angel alerted Anne that the royal family had likely begun its search, then prayed to the Evernight Goddess before leaving Backlund through the Mirror World.
• As she traveled, Angel reflected on her need to advance quickly and strengthen her anchors, while considering the growing fame of her Golden Queen identity.
• Angel reached Bayam and located a familiar figure inside the Pelican and Fish bar.
• Fors wrote notes about Bayam and imagined Gehrman Sparrow in her story before Angel entered the tavern, prompting Fors to prepare to use her recorded Travel ability to escape.

Angel contacted Nast and agreed to his proposal to seek out the Ghost Empire, while Klein rescued Fors from the tavern and Xio returned home with money for her Judge potion. The chapter ended with Angel meeting Nast aboard the Black Emperor as he asked whether she would help find and explore the Ghost Empire.

• Angel stopped Fors from Traveling, then met Derek the Unjust and agreed to Nast’s earlier proposal; Derek gave her the fleet’s location.
• Angel approached Fors, but Klein arrived and took her away; Fors warned him that she had seen Miss Empress.
• Xio returned home with 2,500 pounds and found Fors in a miserable mood; Fors complained that traveling had never been fun.
• Angel traveled through a storm to the Black Emperor, where Nast asked whether she would work with him to find and explore the Ghost Empire.

Angel met Nast Solomon to discuss the Ghost Empire and learned that he could locate its ghost ship but could not reach it because it was outside the real world. Angel realized the ship was hidden in the Mirror World.

• Angel told Nast that the Loen royal family was also searching for the Ghost Empire and asked him to prove he had genuine clues.
• Nast said his earlier expeditions had given him enough information to pinpoint the ghost ship and urged Angel to join him in finding the Trensoest Empire's legacy.
• Nast revealed that the Loen ironclad Enmat had been tracking The Black Emperor and that Duchess Georgina Augustus, an Arbiter demigod, was aboard.
• Nast admitted that even if he found the ghost ship's location, he could not reach it because it was not in this world.
• Angel concluded that the ghost ship was hidden in the Mirror World.

Angel learned that finding and entering the Ghost Empire required locating its shifting appearance, gathering Beyonders from three pathways, and opening its door; Nast shared his map and predicted it would appear nearby the next night. In Backlund, Leonard arrested Father Utravsky and Emlyn White for questioning, then heard that Prince Gowenton had gone to the war in Winter County.

• Angel questioned Nast about the Ghost Empire and learned that it moved through the Sonia Sea and required both a precise location and Beyonders from three pathways to enter.
• Angel secured Nast's agreement that Anne Gustav would receive the Sequence 1 Hand of Order characteristic and she would receive a Sequence 2 Demoness characteristic.
• Nast showed Angel a map of the Ghost Empire's past appearances and predicted it would emerge in nearby waters the next night.
• Leonard led Red Gloves and police officers into the Harvest Church to arrest Father Utravsky, then ordered them to take Emlyn White as well.
• Leonard heard a newsboy announce that fighting in Winter County had reached a stalemate and Prince Gowenton had personally gone to war.

Leonard learned that King George III might be sending Prince Gowenton to the front because he expected the war to reduce the number of heirs he needed. Aboard Nast’s ship, Angel discovered that he had hidden the Ghost Empire’s true route, sensed the ship’s concealed presence in the Mirror World, and arranged to contact Nast when it appeared again in five days; she then told Klein that Nast had found clues to it.

• Leonard asked Pallez why King George III had sent Prince Gowenton to the front, and Pallez suggested the King expected the war to leave him with fewer heirs.
• Angel realized Nast’s map markings concealed the Ghost Empire’s true circular route and concluded he had not intended to share its location with her.
• When the dark red phantom appeared beside the Black Emperor, Nast used Distortion to pull it back, and Angel entered the Mirror World but could not see the Ghost Empire there.
• Angel told Nast what she had sensed in the Mirror World, and Nast said the Ghost Empire would appear at its next location in five days.
• Angel gave Nast a mirror for contacting her and agreed to keep their plan secret.
• Angel met Klein at the gray-fog palace and told him that Nast had found clues to the Ghost Empire.

Angel told Klein about the Ghost Empire, and they discussed working with Nast to claim its Sequence 1 Hand of Order characteristic while preparing to thwart George III’s plans. Angel then suspected that Sefirah Castle and Mr. Fool might have influenced Klein’s life, before Klein’s Chinese lesson left her dazed back at the Iris Flower Winery.

• Angel explained to Klein why finding and opening the Ghost Empire was difficult, and Klein proposed cooperating with Nast to help Anne advance to Sequence 1.
• Klein reported that he had gathered most of the blood needed for the Door Opening ritual, while the Devil Pathway blood had to wait for Derrick’s return from the Giant King’s Court.
• Klein and Angel suspected George III planned to send Govington Augustus to the front to break the stalemate and create an excuse for nationwide mourning.
• Klein described his progress acting as a Trick Sorcerer and his plan to obtain Scholar of Yore ingredients from the Evernight Goddess, prompting Angel to wonder whether Mr. Fool and Sefirah Castle had shaped Klein’s life.
• Angel offered demigod characteristics to help Klein obtain the ingredients, then agreed to discuss exploring the Ghost Empire with him.
• Klein gave Angel an impromptu Chinese lesson, and she returned to the Iris Flower Winery stunned by his examples.

Danitz returned to the Golden Dream and learned that the Bayam resistance planned a dangerous offensive, while Angel set out to meet Nast Solomon and explore the Ghost Empire. Angel arrived at Queen Anne's Revenge and found the ship already filled with working sailors, where Klein was waiting for her.

• Danitz found Anderson packing to leave for the war in Lenburg, but refused Anderson's offer to join him and revealed that he already had the Conspirer formula.
• Anderson decided to leave the Golden Dream's books to Danitz and considered making the crew hate him enough to form a team.
• Danitz went to warn Edwina that the Bayam resistance planned an all-out offensive despite the Sea God's silence.
• Angel received coordinates and a precise time from Nast Solomon for the Ghost Empire's return, then flew through the Mirror World to meet Anne and Klein.
• Angel reflected on the Tarot Club's news about the City of Silver expedition and Rose Redemption's members before reaching Queen Anne's Revenge.
• Angel found living sailors working aboard Queen Anne's Revenge, where Klein greeted her.

Angel and Klein sailed the Queen Anne's Revenge toward the Ghost Empire rendezvous point, preparing for a possible battle and discussing Klein's marionettes and Yesterday Once More charm. They arrived to find The Black Emperor fighting the missing ironclad Enmat, which badly damaged it with a single shot.

• Angel realized Klein had brought a large crew of marionettes aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge and wondered whether Klein himself might also be a marionette.
• Angel and Klein steered the ship toward Nast's coordinates, where they needed to arrive within an hour to enter the Ghost Empire.
• Angel and Klein exchanged combat charms, and Klein explained how the Yesterday Once More charm could restore a past state of power.
• The Queen Anne's Revenge reached the target waters and found The Black Emperor battling the ironclad Enmat.
• The Enmat fired a shell empowered by order that struck The Black Emperor and severely damaged its deck.

Angel and her companions used Nast’s battle with Georgina’s ironclad to capture the Ghost Empire by combining Distortion, reality-strengthening, and the Mirror World. As the Ghost Empire began returning to the Physical World, Nast and Georgina entered its shadow, leaving Angel and the others behind.

• Angel, Klein, and Anne watched the Enmat’s empowered cannons damage the Black Emperor while its iron armor resisted Nast’s return fire.
• Angel chose to let Nast hold off the ironclad while the Ghost Empire approached, and Qonas Kilgor used Distortion to halt its passage near the Queen Anne’s Revenge.
• Angel ordered Anne to strengthen reality, exposing the Ghost Empire’s enormous shadow and forcing it toward the Physical World.
• Angel entered the Mirror World, found the Ghost Empire’s true form as a vast square city, and sealed its passage through the Mirror World.
• Nast stepped from the Black Emperor into the Ghost Empire’s shadow, and Georgina followed him from the Enmat; the shadow swallowed them and vanished.

Angel and Klein were transported separately into the Ghost Empire, where they found themselves in Fourth Epoch buildings and tried to locate their companions. Klein encountered Georgina, and their cautious reunion was interrupted by a group welcoming them to Dream City.

• Angel found herself alone in a churchlike hall with a statue of the Night Emperor and confirmed she could still enter the Mirror World.
• Klein discovered that most of his marionettes were missing, but he retained control of Qonas Kilgor and identified his reception hall as part of the Ghost Empire.
• Georgina appeared before Klein, and Qonas introduced himself as Gehrman Sparrow while she claimed she had an agreement with the Golden Queen.
• Klein realized the separation may have deliberately placed him with Georgina and left him with only Qonas, just as someone opened the reception hall's main door.
• A formally dressed man and his attendants entered, bowed, and welcomed Klein and Georgina to Dream City.

Angel arrived in Dream City, where its residents welcomed her and explained the city’s laws and customs. She discovered that the vast city floated high above the sea, with clouds beneath it.

• Angel entered Dream City and was greeted by Valentina, Cliff, and an honor guard.
• Valentina and Cliff explained that the city had once belonged to the Trensoest Empire and that newcomers were assigned reception according to where they appeared.
• Cliff told Angel that previous visitors had stayed in the city and that she would receive official status from the consul the next day.
• Cliff gave Angel an abridged copy of Dream City’s laws, including a ban on leaving without permission, and described how a past guest had tried to replace the consul.
• Angel surveyed the city from the hotel and used a flying Ice Mirror to discover that Dream City was a floating city above the sea, with clouds beneath it.

Angel discovered that the Ghost Empire was a floating city hidden between reality and the Spirit World, then checked into its hotel alongside Nast Solomon. After Nast warned her about the city’s complete laws and hinted that his father had visited before, Angel began studying the law book before taking any further action.

• Angel used an Ice Mirror to discover the Dream City floating high above the ocean, enclosed by a boundary that made its surroundings appear real.
• Cliff explained that the city had survived the Trensoest Empire’s destruction in isolation, and Angel concluded that Beyonder powers likely kept it afloat and concealed.
• Nast Solomon arrived at the hotel, and Angel and Nast learned they would meet the consul together the following day.
• Angel asked to avoid meeting the consul, but Nast warned her to study the complete laws and save any loophole for a crucial moment.
• Nast revealed that his father had been to the city, then Angel went to her room and began reading the 78th edition of City Law before praying or doing anything else.

Angel studied Dream City's extensive laws, learning how they regulated outsiders and suppressed the inheritance of Beyonder powers. She and Nast traveled to City Hall to meet the consul and receive assigned identities, while Angel weighed whether she could still escape before becoming a resident.

• Angel read Dream City's laws and learned that outsiders had to meet the consul within twenty-four hours, while Beyonders faced restrictions on their powers, descendants, and burial.
• Angel spent the night studying the code, then ordered breakfast and wondered how Dream City had adopted customs and foods from the outside world.
• Angel met Cliff in the hotel lobby and learned that he and Valentina worked as hotel attendants and that residents used quotas as currency.
• Cliff told Angel and Nast that forty-five people had arrived the previous night, including Anne, Klein, Georgina, and Chunas, while thirty-eight people at a factory had died.
• Angel learned that the Queen Anne's Revenge had appeared in a park lake, then traveled with Nast and Cliff to City Hall.
• Angel considered fleeing through the Mirror World before accepting an identity, but abandoned the attempt and stepped out at City Hall with Nast.

Angel and Nast met Goredolf, the Governor of Dream City, and learned how outsiders could become residents and live under the city’s strict laws. Nast’s questions about whether outsiders could have children led Angel to suspect he was searching for descendants of his father, Savini Solomon.

• Angel asked Cliff about Dream City’s population, and he explained its carrying capacity and plans to regulate births if needed.
• Nast asked whether outsiders could leave descendants, and Cliff said ordinary people could but Nast could not; Angel realized he was seeking descendants of Savini Solomon.
• Cliff brought Angel and Nast to the Governor’s office, where they met Goredolf after he asked to speak with them privately.
• Goredolf explained that Angel and Nast would receive resident identities, houses, and basic living quotas, while City Hall would assign work to those who wanted a better life.
• Goredolf urged Angel and Nast to obey City Law but welcomed them finding loopholes so the city could improve its laws.

Angel learned that Dream City’s laws were enforced by the city itself and tested its response by attempting to pry into a resident’s privacy. After being struck by a powerful warning, she spotted Klein and later reunited with him.

• Goredolf told Angel and Nast that Dream City itself watched over the city and enforced its laws.
• Angel left City Hall while Nast went to the Archives Bureau to search for records of Beyonders who had entered Dream City.
• Angel entered the Mirror World and tried divination on a resident, triggering a Saint-level Mental Piercing that struck both her and her substitute.
• Angel concluded that even minor lawbreaking could bring severe consequences and abandoned further tests.
• Angel saw Klein, his marionette, and Duchess Georgina Augustus enter City Hall, then waited for Klein to leave.
• Klein left City Hall and parted ways with Georgina, and Angel reunited with him.

Angel and Klein investigated Dream City's laws before visiting Anne aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge, where she revealed that the consul had asked her to take over his duties. Meanwhile, Nast used his powers to access the Archives Bureau's records and discovered that William Kidd had entered Dream City 130 years earlier and was listed as deceased.

• Angel and Klein discussed how the Hand of Order enforced Dream City's laws and concluded that obtaining the Ghost Empire's treasure would require overcoming both the laws and the consul.
• Angel, Klein, and Chunas reached the Queen Anne's Revenge, and Anne let them board using their abilities.
• Angel asked Anne about the city, and Anne said the consul had asked whether she would take over his duties.
• Nast used Distortion and Magnification to persuade an Archives Bureau worker to give him records of past outsiders.
• Nast found William Kidd's record and read that he had entered Dream City 130 years earlier and died of illness.

Anne explained that the city’s laws were too powerful for her to defy, while Klein and Angel found loopholes involving marionettes acting as their owners. Their discussion was interrupted when a woman arrived at the Queen Anne’s Revenge looking for Angelica, the “Golden Queen.”

• Anne said Goredolf had offered to nominate her as Consul, but she had not accepted and would consider it only as a last resort.
• Anne righted the Queen Anne’s Revenge and explained that she could only delay or lessen the law enforcer’s punishment, not oppose the city’s laws directly.
• Klein showed that his marionette could assume his own appearance without breaking the law, and Angel realized she could use her mirror substitute to channel power from her Mirror Person.
• Klein recalled that Qonas had prayed to him the previous night, letting him answer the prayer above the gray fog without violating the ban on sacrifices to evil gods.
• A black-haired, blue-eyed woman arrived at the ship and asked whether Angelica, the “Golden Queen,” was there.

Duchess Georgina Augustus approached Angel aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge to renew their cooperation against George III, revealing that her faction and the Evernight Goddess Church opposed his plans. She left Angel stunned by disclosing that Prince Edessak Augustus was still alive and under their protection.

• Georgina boarded the Queen Anne's Revenge and asked Anne to continue cooperating over the Ghost Empire and the ship.
• Angel rejected Georgina's offer, but listened when she claimed George III was pursuing a plan harmful to the world and that his success would extinguish Roselle Gustav's hope.
• Georgina inferred that Angel already knew about George III's plan and asked whether Major General Qonas Kilgor had told her.
• Angel and Anne considered killing Georgina after leaving Dream City to keep their knowledge of George III's plan and Hvin Rambis's death secret.
• Georgina said her faction had covered up Major General Cole Gregg's disappearance and was cooperating with the Churches of Evernight and Storms.
• Georgina revealed that Prince Edessak Augustus was alive and protected by her faction and the Church of the Evernight Goddess.

Angel, Klein, and Anne negotiated with Georgina, who revealed that Prince Edessak was alive and offered help from royal opponents of George III. After Anne bound Georgina to secrecy, Angel and Klein went to Hope City's library to investigate its history, where a curious man approached Angel.

• Georgina told Angel and Klein that Edessak was alive and explained that she opposed George III alongside other royal Conservatives.
• Georgina said Grove Augustus would help them reach and destroy the mausoleums during George III's ritual, and Anne required her to sign a secrecy contract.
• Angel and Klein left the ship and went to Hope City's library to research the city's history.
• Angel and Klein searched old history books while a Blonde Man watched Angel and then asked whether they were newcomers to the city.

Angel met Nemo, an outsider and Beyonder who had lived in the Dream City for six years, and learned about his small circle of surviving outsiders. After agreeing to attend their gathering, Klein secretly investigated Nemo’s address and had Chunas pray to Kalvetua.

• Angel asked Nemo about his arrival in the Dream City, and he said a storm in the depths of the Sonia Sea had separated him from his expedition six years earlier.
• Nemo told Angel that five other outsiders remained in contact with him, that all six were Beyonders, and that most outsiders who had died had been unable to have families.
• Angel introduced herself as a Witch, Sherlock as a Magician, and Mr. Colg as a Barbarian, then accepted Nemo’s invitation to a gathering at 26 Sassen Street.
• Nemo revealed that he had belonged to the Iron and Blood Cross Order, though he claimed to have abandoned its beliefs and embraced a peaceful life.
• Klein told Angel that Nemo’s story seemed plausible but that his behavior toward Chunas had felt deliberate, and he suggested they attend the gathering if they found no useful clues.
• Late that night, Klein sent Chunas to watch Nemo’s darkened house from a distance and had him pray to Kalvetua.

Klein used the Grey Fog Space to investigate Nemo and found no immediate abnormalities, while discovering a way to act around Dream City’s laws. Angel settled into her apartment, considered the threats and alliances outside, and recognized a gray ring around the eye of a bird that had watched her.

• Klein confirmed that he could enter the Grey Fog Space despite Dream City’s laws and used the Sea God’s Scepter to observe Nemo, finding no hidden artifacts or signs of losing control.
• Klein performed Dream Divination and saw that Nemo’s daily life matched his account, then decided he and Angel would attend Nemo’s weekend gathering.
• Klein confirmed through divination that the gathering posed no great danger and returned to his home, satisfied that the Grey Fog gave him a way to intervene in Dream City.
• Angel moved into her assigned apartment, weighed her plans involving Georgina, Anne, and Trissy, and noticed the name Olmir in a history book.
• Angel saw a gray bird with a faint ring around its right eye, then noticed the same mark in memory after it flew away.

Angel suspected that Consul Goredolf was an Amon avatar who had replaced the original Consul, and she and Klein planned to investigate him during a gathering of the city’s outsiders. As the gathering began, Angel’s Mirror Person prepared to check Goredolf while a shadow hurried toward City Hall.

• After seeing a bird with a ring around its right eye, Angel suspected Amon had parasitized and replaced Goredolf fourteen years earlier.
• Angel used her Mirror Person to contact the Golden Queen, who said a substitute could detect anomalous changes in Goredolf if it prayed within three hundred meters of him.
• Angel told Klein about her suspicion, and they planned to use the outsiders’ gathering at Nemo’s home to distract the Consul while her substitute observed him.
• Angel noted that Anne and Georgina would also be absent from the gathering, while Nast had gone to the cemetery outside the city.
• Angel, Klein, and Chunas arrived at Nemo’s home for the gathering as a blurred shadow crossed a nearby window and headed toward City Hall.

Angel and Klein attended Nemo’s gathering for outsiders in Dream City, where they learned about the club’s members and the city’s laws. Using her Mirror Person, Angel discovered that Consul Goredolf was Amon’s Avatar and that nearly every club member carried a Worm of Time.

• Nemo introduced Angel and Klein to the members of the loosely organized Fellow Townsmen Association, including Kaya, Lai Li, Yasin, Wilson, and Neumann.
• Lai Li explained that he had boosted Dream City’s agricultural production, but could not sense the Earth Mother because the city’s laws and isolation blocked her blessing.
• Klein introduced himself as Sherlock, presented Angel as his Demoness partner, and described the war outside Dream City and their journey there.
• Angel’s Mirror Person used the Golden Queen’s honorific name to enter the Mirror World and inspect Consul Goredolf, discovering an Amon Avatar inside him.
• Nemo invited Angel, Klein, and their marionette to join the Different from the Rest Club, and Angel saw Worms of Time inside every member present except Nemo.

Angel and Klein discovered that Consul Goredolf had secretly placed Worms of Time in nearly every surviving Beyonder in Hope City, and they tried to work out how to confront the Amon-linked gathering. When the parasites awoke, they fled their hosts and gathered inside Nemo, who revealed a handmade monocle.

• Angel recognized a Worm of Time inside Consul Goredolf and discovered that five members of the Different from the Rest club were parasitized.
• Klein used a disguised rabbit marionette and the Gray Fog to inspect Nemo's house, confirming the parasites and realizing the hosts were in shallow parasitism.
• Angel kept the club members distracted while Klein considered how to deal with Amon without harming their hosts.
• A muffled boom interrupted the gathering, and Nemo questioned Angel about whether Sherlock was really in the bathroom.
• Worms of Time emerged from the club members and gathered inside Nemo as Angel's black flames engulfed Chunas.
• Nemo put a handmade monocle over his right eye while the club members mistook Angel for an attacker.