Chapter Summaries

Angel and the Nighthawks investigated a brutal robbery that might have been committed by a Sequence 6 or Sequence 5 Beyonder, prompting them to request higher-level support. Angel also saw the Wild Bear Gang and Labor Mutual Aid Society dismantled and advanced her Instigator potion digestion, while new clues suggested the killer had recently arrived in Tingen and was preparing something bigger.

• Leonard, Angel, and Old Neil concluded that the Pluck Family killer might be a high-Sequence Beyonder and agreed to request a special operation while notifying the other official organizations.
• Leonard arranged for the police to secure the crime scene and alert the Special Operations Department if similar incidents occurred.
• Angel read that the police had arrested leaders of the Wild Bear Gang and Labor Mutual Aid Society, and she noticed that publicity about the outcome had significantly advanced her Instigator potion digestion.
• Leonard told Angel that the Pluck Family, their butler, and their male servant had been killed, and that about half of their bodies were missing.
• Angel and Leonard noted that the killer had taken only cash, jewelry, and bearer bonds, leading them to suspect he had recently arrived in Tingen, needed money urgently, and planned a major crime.

After the Nighthawks returned from Lamud Town, Angel and Leonard reported the Pluck Family murders to Dunn, who decided to seek help from the Red Gloves against a suspected Aurora Order Rose Bishop. Dunn also discussed Angel and Klein’s Potion Acting progress, then Angel realized Dunn’s Nightmare abilities had caused her recent recurring nightmares.

• Klein and Frye returned from Lamud Town exhausted after purifying a wraith with the Mutated Sun Holy Emblem.
• Angel and Leonard told Dunn about the Pluck Family murders and suspected the killer was an Aurora Order Rose Bishop.
• Dunn decided to report the case to the Holy Cathedral and request the Red Gloves’ assistance.
• Dunn told Angel that the Church would temporarily keep her unregistered Mystical Item and advised her to reveal it proactively during the investigation.
• Angel told Dunn that she and Klein had been using the Acting Method to master their Potions, and Dunn confirmed that it had helped him master his Nightmare abilities.
• Angel realized Dunn’s Nightmare powers had caused her recent nightmares, and Dunn guiltily looked away.

Angel attended a Tarot Club meeting at the Blackthorn Security Company and discovered that the Fool had added Sun as a new member. Sun offered access to the Telepathist formula, and the meeting ended with a three-way trade arranged between Sun, Justice, and the Fool.

• Angel sealed an empty room at the Blackthorn Security Company and entered the Gray Fog at three o'clock.
• The Fool introduced Sun as a new Tarot Club member, surprising Angel, Justice, and the Hanged Man.
• Justice presented two pages of Emperor Roselle's Diary and discussed trading them for the Telepathist formula.
• Sun said he could obtain the Telepathist and Psychiatrist formulas from the Silver City and sought the Bard formula in exchange.
• The Fool arranged a trade in which Sun would give Justice the Telepathist formula, Justice would provide the Fool with Roselle's Diary, and the Fool would compensate Sun.

At the Tarot Club gathering, Miss Empress warned Justice about the Aurora Order and requested a Beyonder ingredient, while the Hanged Man revealed that Qilangos had entered Backlund. The group learned that Qilangos’s Mystical Item, Creeping Hunger, might let him use the abilities of souls it had Grazed.

• Justice reported that the King had approved reforms proposed by the Tarot Club and asked about the identity of Mr. A, the organizer of a Beyonder trading circle.
• Miss Empress warned Justice that Mr. A might be an Aurora Order Oracle and asked her to find the Black Abyss Demon Fish’s Blood.
• The Hanged Man revealed that Qilangos, Vice Admiral Hurricane, had secretly entered Backlund and asked Justice to search for him without confronting him.
• The Hanged Man explained that Creeping Hunger had to consume a living person every other day and gave Qilangos a range of powerful abilities.
• Sun recognized those abilities as resembling a Shepherd’s, explaining that a Shepherd could Graze multiple souls and use their former Beyonder abilities.

After the Tarot Club, Angel realized that her Instigator Potion had been fully digested, possibly through premature acting, and recorded information about the Shepherd for the Nighthawks. The chapter ended with a gray-haired woman arranging a corrupt contract with Councilor Maynard.

• Mr. Fool identified the Shepherd as Sequence 5 of the Secrets Suppliant Pathway, and Angel memorized the information for Dunn Smith.
• The Hanged Man asked Mr. Fool’s blessed one to help capture Qilingus, and Mr. Fool agreed if the blessed one was nearby and prioritized his task.
• Back in Tingen, Angel realized she had fully digested the Instigator Potion and considered whether her earlier actions had counted as premature acting.
• Angel recognized that her Instigator abilities had grown stronger and wrote down what she had learned about the Shepherd to warn the Nighthawks.
• A gray-haired woman told Councilor Maynard that their business arrangement would appear in the papers within three days and reminded him of his promised Street Park contract.

Angel was startled by a supernatural visitor in her home, only to discover it was Daly, who came to discuss the Acting Method and the Church’s knowledge of Angel’s pathway. Daly began to reveal a third matter, leaving Angel waiting to hear what it was.

• Angel used Flame Leap to escape a nightmare, but found her living room lit by eerie green flames and saw a translucent face descend from the ceiling.
• The face identified itself as Daly, and Angel lowered her revolver after Daly explained that Dunn was occupied and Klein’s spirituality was unstable.
• Daly said Dunn’s letters had convinced her that Angel and Klein had discovered the Acting Method, and she asked them to explain it to Dunn and the Tingen Team.
• Daly warned that the Church would likely discover the Acting Method and require Angel and Klein to swear an oath not to reveal it to those who did not know it.
• Daly told Angel that the Church of the Evernight Goddess lacked the Sequence 8 Instigator Potion Formula, then began to explain a third matter.

Angel learned that the Red Gloves would arrive in Tingen to investigate the Aurora Order member, and Daly urged her to reveal the Machinery Hivemind Mystical Item during their operation. Daly then shared her lonely past and doubts about Dunn's feelings, while Angel tried to persuade her that Dunn liked her.

• Daly told Angel that the Red Gloves would arrive that afternoon and advised her to display the Machinery Hivemind Mystical Item during their investigation.
• Angel accidentally called Daly an acquaintance from Backlund, then corrected herself by saying Dunn liked her and the whole Nighthawks team knew it.
• Daly asked Angel whether she knew she had become a Corpse Collector at nineteen and described her isolation and past Indulgence.
• Daly recalled meeting Dunn and questioned whether a conservative man like him could truly like her.
• Angel said Dunn had felt inferior too and suggested that both of them were afraid to approach each other.
• Angel provoked Daly by saying she might pursue Dunn herself, and the living-room gas lamp burst into emerald flames.

Angel woke after the Magician Pocket Watch’s effects and read an apologetic note from Ms. Daly, who advised her to gradually grow accustomed to the item’s fear-inducing side effects. After depositing money at Backlund Bank, Angel recognized a suspicious customer as the Aurora Order member who had butchered the Pluck Family and questioned the bank manager about him.

• Angel woke on the living room sofa and found Ms. Daly’s note apologizing for frightening her and recommending gradual exposure to the Magician Pocket Watch’s effects.
• Angel learned that Ms. Daly planned to speak with Dunn about their relationship and had arranged for Angel to rest at home before going to headquarters that afternoon.
• Angel deposited one hundred pounds into her anonymous account at Backlund Bank.
• Angel recognized a gloomy customer leaving the VIP room as the Aurora Order member who had butchered the Pluck Family, then showed the bank manager her Police Badge and asked what business he had conducted.

Angel traced the Aurora Order member’s bearer bonds to a bank and summoned Dunn and Klein to investigate. Klein’s dream divination located the bonds’ destination on Wendell Street and revealed another Aurora Order divine envoy, Ms. D.

• Angel used Persuasion to learn that the wanted man had redeemed bearer bonds stolen from the Pluck Family, but the bank manager refused to surrender them without authorization.
• Angel contacted Dunn, who arrived with Klein and the precinct sheriff; the bank manager agreed to let them examine the bonds but not remove them.
• Klein sealed the reception room and performed Dream Divination to discover where the bonds had been taken.
• Klein saw that the bonds had gone to a detached house on Wendell Street in the North Borough, now likely occupied by the Aurora Order.
• Klein reported seeing another Aurora Order divine envoy, a brown-haired woman around thirty called Ms. D.

The Tingen Nighthawks identified Ms. D as a likely Sequence 5 Shepherd and prepared to attack the Aurora Order’s base with the arriving Red Gloves. Soest questioned Klein and Angel about their roles and pasts, while his hostility toward Dunn eased.

• Klein used divination to confirm that the person who redeemed the bond was not the true killer of the Pluck family.
• Angel and the other Nighthawks returned to Blackthorn Security Company and met Soest and two other Red Gloves.
• Klein described his Dream Divination, and Dunn identified Ms. D as a likely Sequence 5 Shepherd who could use grazed Beyonder abilities.
• Dunn proposed gathering police information and launching an attack that night, and Soest accepted the plan.
• Soest asked Klein about the risks Seers faced in the Nighthawks, then told Angel that Daly had mentioned her Assassin past.

Soest and the Red Gloves met with the Tingen Nighthawks and discussed the Aurora Order’s occupation of a villa on Wendell Street. Dunn arranged a joint operation for that night, assigning Angel to join the assault while Klein stayed behind to prepare support.

• Soest praised Angel’s battle record and asked about her knowledge of the Red Gloves, but Angel avoided his apparent attempt to recruit her.
• Soest introduced Henry and Lares, then enthusiastically discussed Daly Simone’s rapid advancement to Sequence 6.
• Dunn presented information about the Wendell Street villa, where Ms. D and her subordinates had occupied the building and set up an altar to the True Creator.
• Soest identified Ms. D as a Sequence 5 Shepherd and warned that the unknown souls she had Grazed could make her a formidable enemy; Klein also cautioned that the suspected murderer might be dangerous.
• Dunn proposed using Sealed Artifact 2-105, Blood Vessel Thief, to steal one of Ms. D’s abilities during the fight.
• Dunn assigned Angel to join Soest’s team in the operation that night, while Klein remained at headquarters to prepare healing Ritual Magic.

Angel, Dunn, Soest, Lares, and Henry raided Ms. D’s villa after Soest pulled her and another Beyonder into a dream, but Ms. D appeared in the hall and attacked them. She blocked their gunpowder weapons with an Order, leaving the fight unresolved.

• Dunn rejected artillery because the battle would endanger nearby residents, and the team planned to evacuate the area before the assault.
• Soest entered a dream and pulled Ms. D and another Beyonder into a second-floor bedroom, allowing the others to enter the villa.
• The team found a statue of the True Creator in the hall, but Ms. D suddenly appeared and attacked them with Flame Spears and firebirds.
• Lares used the Blood Vessel Thief to steal Ms. D’s ability to control flames, and Ms. D imposed an Order forbidding gunpowder weapons.

Angel and the Nighthawks fought Ms. D, who switched between abilities from her Grazed souls and her own Pathway while using declarations to prohibit attacks. After Ms. D extinguished the flames and fled through the shadows toward the main door, Angel warned her teammates as the door opened.

• Angel used Flame Leap and her dagger to attack Ms. D, while Dunn and Henry tried to put the Shepherd to sleep.
• Ms. D donned silver armor and summoned a radiant Greatsword, forcing Angel to evade while the Nighthawks damaged her armor with gunfire.
• Angel and Lares struck Ms. D with Black Flame bullets and a Flame Spear, but Ms. D destroyed the flames and vanished into the shadows.
• Angel realized Ms. D could use only one Grazed soul's abilities at a time, warned the Nighthawks to protect Lares, and reloaded Bloodthirst.
• Angel spotted Ms. D's shadow fleeing toward the main door and warned her teammates, but her Black Flame bullets were extinguished by the prohibition.
• Dunn sent an invisible ripple toward the fleeing shadow as Henry prepared to confront Ms. D, and the villa's main door opened.

Angel and the Nighthawks fought Ms. D in the villa, but an Aurora Order member’s Flesh Bomb explosion devastated the hall and left both Angel and Ms. D injured. Angel attacked Ms. D after the blast, but Ms. D escaped through the wall, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

• Soest used his Silver Ring to force Ms. D out of the shadows, and Angel shot her while Dunn and Henry fired as well.
• Ms. D Grazed the Silver White Armor, resisted Dunn’s hypnosis, and prepared to attack as a bare-chested Aurora Order member leaped down with a Flesh Bomb.
• Angel shoved Dunn through the doors and used Paper Figurine Substitute to escape the explosion, though the blast injured her back.
• Angel found Ms. D still alive, severed her gun-holding hand, and pressed her with her dagger as Ms. D cryptically said Angel was just as someone had described.
• Ms. D detonated her severed arm, blasted Angel toward the altar, then sank into the hall wall and disappeared.

Angel and the Nighthawks survived their battle with Ms. D, but the Shepherd escaped after losing an arm. The group began tending to the injured and preparing to deal with the ruined villa.

• Angel chose not to pursue Ms. D and returned to the hall to help the injured Nighthawks.
• Angel gave Henry Goddess's Gaze and checked on Lares, taking Blood Vessel Thief from his hand for safekeeping.
• Dunn and Soest entered the hall, and Angel reported that Ms. D had escaped through the wall after detonating her severed arm.
• Soest judged that the team had done well and concluded Ms. D would flee Tingen to recover, making pursuit impractical.
• Dunn and Henry moved Lares outside, while Dunn checked that Angel was unharmed.
• Angel pointed out the devastated villa and the Magician Pocket Watch's nearly finished countdown as the group turned to cleanup.

Ms. D escaped Tingen City and headed toward Backlund after the Nighthawks’ battle with the Aurora Order. Klein used the Grey Fog to review the fight and learned that Lanevus had been in contact with Ms. D.

• Ms. D swam down the Tussock River, told someone she would reach Backlund before dawn, and warned them to continue the plan.
• Dunn, Soest, and Angel discussed the battle at Blackthorn Security Company while Old Neil treated the injured Henry and Lares.
• Klein’s ordinary Divination of Ms. D’s location was interfered with, so he entered the Grey Fog Space to investigate.
• Klein’s dream Divination showed him the Nighthawks’ ambush, Ms. D’s escape, and Angel being caught in an explosion.
• Klein used Pendulum Divination in the Grey Fog Space and confirmed Ms. D had left Tingen City.
• Klein’s Divination about people who had contacted Ms. D revealed the familiar face of Lanevus.

Klein reported that his divination linked Lanevus to Ms. D and the Aurora Order, prompting Soest to spread the wanted man’s description among the Red Gloves. After Dunn brought Klein and Angel home, Angel entered her cold house and found a strange, eyeless face with an enormous mouth floating before her.

• Klein told Dunn, Soest, and Angel that Ms. D had left Tingen and that his dream divination had identified Lanevus as someone connected to her.
• Angel explained that Lanevus had run off with more than ten thousand pounds raised through an investment scheme, and Soest ordered a wanted poster and a search for him.
• Soest said he would return to Backlund the next morning and seek a higher-level Sealed Artifact to track down Ms. D.
• Klein and Angel awkwardly discussed the danger of the fight and her Mystical Item before Dunn offered them a carriage ride home.
• Angel reached her house at 6 Daffodil Street, sensed an unnatural chill, activated her Spirit Vision, and saw a translucent face with no eyes or nose and an enormous mouth.

Angel received a letter from Daly advising her and Klein to apply early for advancement, then replied with an account of the battle and her thoughts on the application. She also asked Daly to find an Agate Peacock's Egg in Backlund, and sent the reply through Daly's messenger.

• Daly's messenger delivered a letter to Angel, in which Daly asked about the operation and urged Angel and Klein to submit special advancement applications soon.
• Angel considered whether she and Klein should apply early or wait until the end of the month, and read Daly's instructions for summoning her messenger.
• The messenger reappeared while Angel recited the incantation, and Angel wrote a reply describing the battle against Ms. D and their suspicions about Lanevus.
• Angel told Daly she would discuss the advancement application with Klein before deciding, and teased Daly about her concern for Captain Dunn.
• Angel asked Daly to find and purchase an Agate Peacock's Egg in Backlund, then gave the letter to the messenger.

Angel visited Klein to discuss Ms. Daly’s renewed proposal for a special application and the Acting Method, and she and Klein agreed to submit it to the captain. Melissa invited Angel to dinner with Klein, where Angel learned that Benson was studying for a public examination and began to suspect the Moretti family had heard about the proposal unusually early.

• Angel told Klein about Ms. Daly’s visits, her letter, and the Church’s special application for advancing through the Acting Method.
• Klein and Angel agreed to submit their special application to the captain the next day and discussed how to share the Acting Method with the other team members without exposing Ms. Daly.
• Melissa returned home, saw Angel with Klein, and invited her to join their dinner.
• At dinner, Melissa explained that Benson had been working late less often since Klein became a Nighthawk and was studying for the Kingdom’s public examination.
• Angel realized the public-examination proposal had not yet passed the Upper and Lower Houses, wondered how the Moretti family knew about it, and noticed Klein quickly avert his gaze.

Angel reported Klein Moretti as a possible Tarot Club candidate, and the Fool agreed to assess him while ordering her to keep the club secret from him. The next morning, Angel and Klein persuaded Dunn to approve their applications to advance, leaving Klein startled when Angel asked whether a Seer’s Sequence 8 was called Clown.

• Angel recorded her suspicions about Klein and prayed to the Fool, who said he would assess Klein and told her not to reveal the Tarot Club to him.
• Angel and Klein visited Dunn and requested permission to submit applications to advance beyond their current Sequences.
• Klein explained the coincidences he had faced since joining the Nighthawks and said he wanted to grow stronger to protect his family and friends.
• Dunn approved both applications, though he could not guarantee the church had the Instigator Potion formula for Angel.
• Klein went to draft his application, and Angel asked whether the Seer’s Sequence 8 was Clown, freezing his excited expression.