Chapter Summaries

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.

Angel and Klein confronted Amon, who had stolen Nemo’s identity and used Dream City’s laws to attack without consequence. Anne Gustav briefly suspended the punishments that protected Amon, but Consul Goredolf arrived as their counterattack began.

• Angel realized Nemo was the source of the Amon plague and confronted him, while Amon sent the other Unique Club members away and tried to steal her fate.
• Klein’s lightning missed Amon, so he prepared marionette substitutes and entered the Mirror World, but Amon forced Angel, Klein, Chunas, and the others back into reality.
• Angel destroyed Nemo’s home with a calamity attack, but Amon emerged unharmed, stole her Disease ability, and spread mystical pathogens through the city.
• Anne Gustav appeared and declared that stealing was prohibited, restoring Angel’s ability and temporarily bearing the punishments of the law so Angel and Klein could attack Amon.
• Amon stole Klein’s position to escape Angel’s petrification, turning Klein’s body into stone, while Klein controlled Amon’s Spirit Body Threads and Angel infected him with Disease.
• Consul Goredolf arrived and ordered all unlawful conduct to cease.

Angel and Klein were confined by Hope City’s laws while Consul Goredolf sentenced another Amon to death, revealing that he had already absorbed the city’s other Amon avatars. As Goredolf prepared to deal with the remaining criminals, Angel used a Yesterday Once More charm to return to the moment she first entered Dream City and become an outsider again.

• Goredolf partitioned the battlefield, exiled the One of a Kind club members, and confined Angel, Klein, and Amon in separate areas.
• Goredolf charged Angel and Klein, then sentenced Nemo Amon to death for his accumulated crimes.
• Amon’s exchanged fates caused Angel and Klein to suffer Execution in his place, but Goredolf resisted Amon’s attempt to parasitize him.
• Goredolf explained that he had betrayed the other Amon avatars for fun and absorbed their Beyonder characteristics throughout Hope City.
• Angel activated her Yesterday Once More charm and returned to her first evening in Dream City, becoming an outsider instead of a resident.

Angel exploited a loophole in Dream City’s laws to take Goredolf out of Hope City, forcing the Hand of Order into a contradiction. As the laws collapsed into blank pages, the city’s control over its residents was thrown into question.

• Angel used the Yesterday Once More charm to become an outsider, then sent a mirror substitute to attack Amon with the power of betrayal, but Goredolf blocked it with order.
• Goredolf tried to parasitize Angel with a Worm of Time, but Anne imprisoned the Worm while Klein used a Fate charm to exchange its fate with Goredolf’s.
• Angel used Anne’s mark to take herself and Goredolf into the Mirror World instead of attacking him.
• The Hand of Order pursued them, but its duty to punish residents who left conflicted with its duty to protect the consul.
• City Law copies throughout Dream City turned blank as the laws collapsed.

Angel and her allies destroyed Dream City's laws by exploiting contradictions, but the collapse unleashed the powers of four Sequence 2 characteristics and threatened to destroy the Floating City and its hundred thousand residents. Goredolf told Anne Gustav that only a new Balancer could restore order, leaving her to decide whether to become the new consul.

• Klein examined the City Law and discovered that every law had vanished after Angel and Goredolf returned to Dream City.
• Angel explained that Goredolf had willingly come back with her and agreed to collaborate in saving the city.
• Angel surveyed Dream City and learned from Goredolf that its collapsing system had released four powerful Beyonder characteristics, putting the city at risk of destruction within minutes.
• Klein asked how they could save the residents, and Goredolf explained that a new Balancer had to take control of the characteristics.
• Goredolf urged Anne Gustav to become the new consul and shoulder the responsibility of restoring order.

Anne refused Amon’s request to become Consul until she and Klein understood his motives, while Amon explained how he became bound to Goredolf and the city. With the Spirit World encroaching and Hope City collapsing, Anne agreed to consider taking the Consul’s role to help stop the catastrophe.

• Anne refused to accept Amon’s proposal, warning that he might be setting a trap for her and her contractor.
• Klein questioned Amon about why he entered the city and assumed Consul Goredolf’s identity, and Amon said he came to explore the Ghost Empire.
• Amon explained that his attempt to steal Goredolf’s fate had instead merged their identities, leaving him responsible for the city and unable to leave.
• Amon revealed that Angel’s destruction of the laws had triggered the city’s crisis, while Nast and Georgina worked to slow the Spirit World’s spread and protect residents.
• Angel asked whether Anne could become Consul without being trapped in the role, and Amon said she could amend the laws to allow herself to leave.
• Anne agreed to proceed, instructed Angel to watch Amon closely, and asked him what they should do next.

Angel and Anne entered the Night Emperor’s tomb beneath City Hall so Anne could take control of the Hand of Order and stop Dream City’s disaster. Anne succeeded with Angel’s help and became the city’s new consul, announcing that the crisis was over and issuing a temporary curfew.

• Goredolf explained that Anne could use the Sequence 1 characteristic to control the Hand of Order, and Angel agreed to accompany her into the tomb.
• Angel gave Klein a Calamity charm and warned him to attack Goredolf if they did not return within ten minutes, then took Anne into the Mirror World.
• Angel and Anne found the Hand of Order in the Memorial Hall, where it was restoring laws that would eliminate the consul’s role.
• Anne used her connection with Angel to preserve her humanity and seized the Hand of Order, invalidating its new prohibition as the Memorial Hall shook.
• Goredolf told Klein that Anne had a ten percent chance of success, then corrected himself as the disaster ended and the odds became ninety percent.
• Anne announced herself as Dream City’s new consul, credited Angel with helping resolve the crisis, and ordered residents to return home for a temporary curfew.

Anne became Dream City's new consul and gained control of the Hand of Order, while refusing to accommodate its Sequence 1 characteristic. Angel and the others considered bringing Hope City back to reality so Angel could obtain the Catastrophe Demoness characteristic, and Anne appointed Amon's avatar as her assistant until that plan was complete.

• Anne activated the Hand of Order, restored its authority over Dream City, and revised the city's laws.
• Anne rejected accommodating the Hand of Order because its obsession and the Night Emperor's lingering psyche could overwhelm her.
• Amon's avatar argued that Anne could safely separate the Catastrophe characteristic and suggested returning Hope City to reality.
• Amon's avatar asked Angel, Klein, and Anne to kill him, but Anne refused and bound him to serve as her assistant until the characteristic was removed and Hope City returned to reality.

Angel negotiated with Nast and Georgina after the crisis in Dream City, then prepared to leave with Klein while Anne stayed behind to manage the city. Angel and Klein chose to spend one more night together before departing.

• Angel met Nast and Georgina at City Hall, where Nast said he would take Savini Solomon’s remains back to Intis and Angel agreed to give him Savini’s Beyonder characteristic in exchange for information about the Ghost Empire.
• Georgina said she would go missing for a while and warned Angel to watch the Northern Front for signs that George III’s final plan was beginning.
• Angel approved Georgina and Nast’s departures, sending Georgina out first and making Nast wait five minutes to prevent an ambush.
• Klein told Angel they should leave soon, since Anne needed several days to finish her work and they could not risk waiting for her.
• Angel persuaded Klein to stay until the next day, and they vanished from City Hall together; Qonas Kilgor and a rabbit marionette remained behind.

Shermane visited Liv and Daisy’s new home, then delivered intelligence about the Aurora Order to Leonard at a Church of Night aid event. Audrey hoped the student aid effort would help East Borough children as she worried that an incident involving Gowenton could trigger a new stage of the war.

• Shermane helped Liv and Daisy settle into their new North Borough home, and Daisy asked when Sherman would return.
• Shermane reflected on her new reactions as a Demoness of Pleasure before arriving at the Church of Night’s student aid event.
• Leonard recalled Pallez’s warning that the Dream City’s altered Amon might still betray the original Amon if their interests conflicted.
• Shermane gave Leonard information about Mr. K’s Aurora Order gatherings, including a masked attendee who never traded and always left last.
• Audrey finished distributing aid leaflets and worried that trouble involving Gowenton could shatter Backlund’s peace.

Angel wrote to Azik about the dangers she and Klein faced, while Klein advanced to Sequence 3 and became a Scholar of Yore. As he tested his new ability to summon historical images, he unexpectedly summoned Angel’s Mirror Person, who appeared to have awareness.

• Angel described the war, the Demoness’s plans, the Ghost Empire, and her upcoming danger in a letter to Azik.
• Reinette Tinekerr delivered Klein’s message that he would advance to Scholar of Yore that night, and Angel sent Azik’s letter with her.
• Klein advanced to Sequence 3 on an uninhabited island in the Berserk Sea and found that most of his potion had been digested.
• Klein tested his new abilities and found he could summon simple objects and his dead marionette Enyouni from history.
• Klein finally summoned Angel’s historical image, but it appeared as her Mirror Person and spoke to him with a lively expression.