Chapter Summaries

After Mrs. Sharon’s death, Dunn secured the scene and explained the danger of the Beyonder Characteristic she left behind. He offered Angel the choice of fleeing Tingen under Church protection or joining the Nighthawks, and she asked about the salary and benefits.

• Dunn questioned Leonard about the battle, assigned the team to handle the scene, and arranged for Inspector Victor to search Mrs. Sharon’s home with Nighthawk support.
• Dunn, Leonard, and Angel watched Mrs. Sharon’s Beyonder Characteristic manifest as a bloodshot eyeball, which Dunn sealed in a wooden box.
• Dunn told Angel that Cole Granger remained missing and that the Churches and official organizations would issue a wanted notice.
• Dunn offered Angel a choice between leaving Tingen under Church protection and joining the Nighthawks.
• Angel weighed the risks of her forged identity against the protection and knowledge the Nighthawks could offer, then asked Dunn about the salary and benefits.

Angel joined the Nighthawks in Tingen and met fellow newcomer Klein Moretti on the tram to Blackthorn Security Company. After signing her contract, Dunn assigned her to produce bullets for the team and told her to ask Klein to come into his office.

• Angel woke late, hurried out after remembering she had agreed to join the Nighthawks, and reassured Tromi that she would keep employing her.
• Angel met Klein Moretti on the tram, learned about his background, and accompanied him to Blackthorn Security Company.
• Angel and Klein met Dunn Smith, who told them that Daly had left Tingen and said she had praised Angel.
• Angel signed her contract with Dunn and officially joined the Tingen Nighthawks, subject to Holy Cathedral approval.
• Dunn asked Angel to provide eighty bullets of two types by the following Monday, and Angel chose to make them at home.
• Dunn approved Angel's plan and sent her to ask Klein to come into his office.

Angel joined the Nighthawks and went with Rozanne to collect ammunition materials from Old Neil. While waiting in his room, Angel recognized the writing on the yellowed pages as script from an Asian country, an unfamiliar clue about her new world.

• Angel signed a contract to join the Nighthawks, and Klein entered Captain Dunn's office.
• Angel told Rozanne she was already an unofficial Beyonder and revealed that her Sequence was Assassin.
• Rozanne led Angel through the underground passage to the materials warehouse, where Angel met Old Neil.
• Old Neil recognized Angel from the previous night's battle and prepared bullets and materials for her Storm Convergence ammunition.
• Angel noticed that the yellowed pages Old Neil had been reading bore writing from an Asian country.

Angel discovered that Emperor Roselle’s diary was written in Chinese and suspected he had also come from Earth. She memorized its pages before joining Dunn, Old Neil, and Klein in the Alchemy Room, where Old Neil presented Klein’s Seer Potion.

• Angel recognized the symbols on Roselle’s diary pages as Chinese and concluded that Roselle was likely a transmigrator from Earth.
• Angel memorized all three diary pages while waiting in the basement.
• Dunn told Angel that Old Neil was preparing a Potion for Klein, and Angel asked to watch the process.
• Old Neil delivered Angel’s requested materials and went to Chanis Gate to collect a Seer Potion and its ingredients.
• Dunn introduced Angel and Klein in the Alchemy Room, where Old Neil arrived with the Seer Potion.

Old Neil brewed the Seer Potion for Klein, who drank it and began learning to control his new powers. Angel left the Alchemy Room after Dunn Smith reminded her of her work duties and told her to collect a badge and a new gun.

• Old Neil assigned Angel and Klein tasks, then brewed the Seer Potion from its auxiliary materials and Beyonder Ingredients.
• Klein drank the completed Potion and convulsed briefly before recovering.
• Old Neil helped Klein enter a meditative state to practice controlling his new powers while Dunn Smith watched Angel.
• Angel left with her materials box after Dunn Smith agreed she could go and reminded her to report to the company once a day.
• Dunn Smith called Angel back to tell her to collect a badge and a new gun from Old Neil, and she continued toward the crossroads.

Angel returned home worried that the Nighthawks would uncover her forged identity, then attended the second Tarot Club gathering. She watched Hanged Man fulfill his bargain with Justice and wondered whether the Fool had noticed her interest in the Potion formula.

• Angel left Blackthorn Security Company, fearing the Nighthawks were investigating her identity, and returned to 6 Daffodil Street.
• Angel prepared for the Monday Tarot Club gathering and was transported to the Gray Fog at three in the afternoon.
• Angel thanked Hanged Man for helping her friend obtain identification documents, and he assured her that the forger was reliable.
• Justice confirmed that Hanged Man had received the Ghost Shark Blood and asked him to provide the Spectator Potion formula.
• The Fool enabled Hanged Man to write the formula on parchment, which he passed to Justice, then Hanged Man explained how to prepare Potions.
• Angel watched the Fool tap the table and wondered whether he had noticed her trying to learn the formula.

Klein introduced a fair way to record information in the Gray Fog and revealed that potion advancement depended on acting according to a potion’s name. He asked the Tarot Club members to collect Roselle Gustav’s diaries, while Angel secretly considered how to use the three pages she had memorized.

• Klein provided parchment and pens that let members imprint what they wanted to write, preventing others from seeing their notes.
• Klein corrected Hanged Man’s explanation, saying potions were digested through acting in accordance with their names.
• Klein asked the members to collect Roselle Gustav’s diary pages in exchange for rewards, and Hanged Man and Justice agreed to search for them.
• Klein showed the members how to reproduce memorized diary symbols on parchment within the Gray Fog.
• Angel realized she owed Klein two diary pages and planned to decide how many of her three memorized pages to submit after seeing the others’ progress.

At the Tarot Club, Angel exchanged information about the Demoness Sect and offered Justice a plan for creating a stable civil service. The gathering ended with Angel back in her study, wondering whether the gray fog space had some deeper significance.

• The Hanged Man proposed making information exchange a regular part of the Tarot Club and reported that Admiral Ludwell had sailed east to explore the Sonia Sea.
• The Fool revealed that the Secret Order had lost a notebook belonging to the Antigonus Family, and the Hanged Man connected the family’s destruction to the Church of the Evernight Goddess.
• Angel told the others that a Sequence 6 Beyonder from the Demoness Sect had attacked the Nighthawks’ base in Tingen and been defeated.
• Justice described the Kingdom’s inefficient government, and Angel suggested separating political appointments from a stable civil service selected through examinations.
• Justice thanked Angel for the useful proposal, and the Fool ended the gathering.
• Angel returned to her study, found that the fountain pen she had brought to the gray fog space was gone, and wondered what the space was.

Angel replaced her worn revolver and learned from Old Neil about Mystical Items and how to make Slumber Charms. When Klein arrived to collect practice bullets, Angel asked where the shooting range was.

• Old Neil criticized Angel’s neglected revolver, then issued her a new one, ammunition, a Special Operations Division badge, and a Weapon Usage Permit.
• Angel asked what happened to old weapons, and Old Neil explained how Beyonder exposure could create Mystical Items and described the scarcity of Beyonder Weapons.
• Old Neil gave Angel a Slumber Charm and explained how she could copy its incantation to make more Charms.
• Old Neil said he planned to teach Klein Moretti how to make Charms, and Klein arrived to collect thirty ordinary revolver bullets for practice.
• Klein told Angel that the captain had assigned him daily shooting practice, and Angel asked whether the shooting range was nearby.

Angel and Klein practiced shooting at the Zouteland Shooting Club, where Angel demonstrated her close-combat pistol technique and showed Klein how quickly she could disarm or outdraw him at short range. They ended with Klein asking about distant rifle opponents, and Angel advised him to run rather than trade shots with a pistol.

• Angel followed Klein to the Zouteland Shooting Club and watched him practice standard two-handed pistol shooting, which kept his shots around the seven- to eight-ring area.
• Angel tested her new revolver with two-handed close-combat shooting and one-handed hip firing, then explained that pistols were most practical at close range.
• Angel demonstrated that she could rush Klein and pin his gun hand before he could aim, then showed that her stance also let her draw and aim before he could reach her weapon.
• Klein tried Angel’s unaimed technique at a fifteen-meter target and missed, while Angel explained that it was meant for close-range combat.
• Klein asked how to handle an enemy fifty meters away with a High-Pressure Steam Rifle, and Angel told him to run away.

After a morning at the shooting range, Angel returned to Blackthorn Security Company with Klein and stayed for lunch. As the coworkers discussed a murder at Khoy University and the rising number of cases, a knock came just as Angel was about to eat.

• Angel and Klein left the Zouteland Shooting Club and headed back to Blackthorn Security Company around noon.
• Klein explained that he ate lunch at work because Melissa studied at school, Benson often worked overtime, and he had an afternoon patrol assignment.
• Rozanne and Bredt told Angel that Dunn and Seeka Tron had gone to Khoy University to assist the Machinery Hivemind with a murder investigation.
• Rozanne and Bredt discussed how many recent murders had exceeded the usual rate, and Klein reacted quietly when Magwin's son was mentioned.
• A waiter delivered the meal boxes, and Bredt took portions downstairs for Kenley and Old Neil.
• Klein gave Angel Dunn's larger meal, and a knock sounded as she was about to eat.

Mrs. Green hired the Blackthorn Security Company to retrieve her husband’s stolen ring from a gang-linked organization, offering one hundred Gold Pounds. Klein accepted the commission and used a pendulum to predict that they would recover the ring by the next day.

• A richly dressed woman entered the Blackthorn Security Company and asked them to find a stolen item.
• Rozanne explained the company’s fees and terms, and Mrs. Green agreed to hire them.
• Mrs. Green said a private detective had traced her husband’s stolen gold ring to the Labor Mutual Aid Society in Docklands, which had suspected gang connections.
• Mrs. Green explained that the detective refused to retrieve the ring and offered one hundred Gold Pounds for its return.
• Klein accepted the commission and used a silver-chain pendulum to predict that the ring would be recovered by the next day.

Klein used divination to confirm that Mrs. Green’s stolen ring was in a Docklands warehouse and helped Angel narrow down where it was being kept. Angel concluded that the ring was in a safe, setting up her plan to retrieve it.

• Klein explained that his pendulum divination showed retrieving Mrs. Green’s ring would involve little danger, so he accepted her 120-pound commission.
• Rozanne explained how the reward would be divided, and Angel clarified that she was not an official Nighthawk, entitling her to 30 pounds.
• Klein divined that the ring was at the Labor Mutual Aid Society in the Docklands, then proposed using a dowsing rod to locate it.
• Angel rejected Klein’s plan to enter the warehouse with her and instead had him divine whether the ring was being carried or properly stored.
• After the divinations showed that the ring was not being carried and was properly stored, Angel concluded that it was in a safe.

Angel went alone to the Docklands warehouse to retrieve Mrs. Green’s lost ring while a workers’ protest drew people to the entrance. She searched the second floor and found the locked Chairman’s office, where she suspected the ring might be kept.

• Angel refused Klein’s offer to accompany her, arguing that working alone would make it easier to retrieve the ring unnoticed.
• Angel reached the warehouse and found more than a hundred workers protesting the Chairman’s absence and demanding a representative assembly.
• Angel used pipes and a window to climb into the warehouse’s second-floor records room while the crowd occupied the entrance.
• Angel searched the offices and found no one except a man asleep in the lounge.
• Angel reached the locked Chairman’s office and realized it might be the room she was looking for.

Angel broke into Chairman Jike’s office and found Mrs. Green’s stolen ring alongside a notebook documenting the Labor Mutual Aid Society’s human-trafficking operation. As she tried to leave with the evidence, someone attacked her with a dagger.

• Angel picked the lock to Jike’s office and searched the bare room for the ring.
• Angel discovered a hidden compartment behind a painting and took Mrs. Green’s ring, other valuables, and a leather-bound notebook.
• Angel read Jike’s entries and realized the Chairman had become involved in trafficking people through the Docklands.
• Angel saw that fighting outside had subsided, ransacked the office to disguise her search, and prepared to leave with the notebook.
• Angel opened the office door, sensed danger, and froze as a dagger flashed toward her face.

Angel was ambushed in the Labor Mutual Aid Society warehouse by a young Assassin seeking Jike’s ledger, and fought him off before he escaped with the notebook. She evaded the Society’s men by staging a false escape through a window and slipped away into the crowd.

• Angel narrowly avoided a hooded Assassin’s surprise attack and fought back with her dagger, forcing him to retreat.
• The Assassin revealed that he wanted Jike’s ledger, and Angel realized he meant the notebook she had brought from the room.
• The Assassin lunged for the notebook, dodged Angel’s first shot, and escaped through the doorway after she wounded his shoulder.
• Angel misled the Labor Mutual Aid Society’s men by smashing a window and climbing onto the roof, then used Feather Fall to descend and disappear into the crowd.

After escaping a Docklands warehouse with evidence of human trafficking, Angel reported the attack by a Beyonder Assassin to Dunn Smith. Dunn planned to coordinate an investigation with other authorities, while Angel handed over the Assassin’s dagger and a sketch and let the team take half the value of her recovered goods.

• Angel returned to Blackthorn Security Company and told Seeka Tron she would discuss the Divination later, then went to report to Dunn Smith.
• Angel explained that she had found a notebook documenting the Labor Mutual Aid Society’s crimes and had been attacked by a Beyonder Assassin trying to seize it.
• Angel demonstrated the Assassin’s Mighty Blow, and she and Dunn concluded that the attacker was likely retrieving evidence for a larger organization involved in human trafficking.
• Dunn decided to seek a joint investigation with the Mandated Punishers and police, and planned to give the dagger to Old Neil for Divination.
• Angel drew a portrait of the Assassin and handed it and the dagger to Dunn, then surrendered her recovered jewelry and cash for Mrs. Orianna to assess and take half as team funds.

Angel completed her special bullets while the Nighthawks investigated Mrs. Green’s background and the assassin’s allies. Dunn presented Angel’s reports and formally offered her membership in the Tingen City Nighthawks Squad, leaving her to decide whether to accept.

• Angel delivered her special bullets to Dunn, who explained that Mrs. Green inherited her late husband’s fortune and had hired the detectives only to recover his ring.
• Dunn said the Nighthawks had made no progress finding the assassin, though they were waiting for Jike Houghton’s arrest to learn more about the organization behind him.
• Dunn showed Angel the reports and identity documents he planned to submit to the Holy Cathedral, including Leonard’s account of Sharon Khoy’s attack.
• Dunn told Angel that the Holy Cathedral had agreed in principle to accept her as a formal member, then asked whether she would join the Nighthawks.
• Dunn explained Angel’s new pay, duties, restrictions, and risks, and said she could wait for the Holy Cathedral’s reply before making her final decision.

Angel weighed the restrictions, scrutiny, danger, and advancement limits of formally joining the Tingen City Nighthawks. She had not yet considered the advantages and remained undecided as she stood in the underground passage.

• After leaving Dunn Smith's office, Angel wondered whether the Nighthawks trusted her and whether the Demoness Sect might be using her to infiltrate the Church of the Evernight Goddess.
• Bredt told Angel that Klein Moretti was off duty and explained where the other Nighthawks were.
• Angel went down to the basement intending to collect training ammunition, but stopped at the passage crossroads to consider Dunn's offer.
• Angel listed the loss of freedom, possible surveillance, dangerous missions, and restrictions on advancing as reasons against joining the Nighthawks, then crossed out loss of control as a risk shared by all Beyonders.
• Angel suppressed her urge to refuse Dunn's offer and turned to consider the advantages of joining.

Angel weighed the security, income, and mystical resources of becoming a full Nighthawk against the freedom of seeking a way home, but could not decide. After hearing Seeka Tron’s advice to choose the path she would regret least, Angel left Blackthorn Security Company still uncertain, with her companions on her mind.

• Angel listed the benefits of joining the Nighthawks, including stable income, greater safety, and access to mystical knowledge, while considering the freedom of leaving to search for a way home.
• Angel collected thirty pistol bullets from Old Neil, who invited her to attend divination lessons and suggested Klein could teach her.
• Angel declined lunch with Seeka Tron, who warned her to consider the risks of becoming a full member and shared how she had joined after surviving a Beyonder’s rampage.
• Seeka told Angel to choose the option she would regret least, and Angel left for home still undecided, writing “Companions” in her imagined grid.