Chapter Summaries

Alice emerged from the gray-white fog into Moon City in the Cursed Land, where High Priest Nim identified her as a guest expected by an ancient oracle. Overcome by grief and unanswered questions, she introduced herself as Miss Fortune and followed Nim into the city, where its gathered residents awaited them.

• High Priest Nim told Alice that Moon City had guarded the gray-white fog for 3,721 years and that Xin and Rus had seen her thrown out of it.
• Alice checked her belongings, kicked the fog in anger, and broke down in tears as she questioned why Fate had brought her there and what someone wanted from her.
• Nim offered Alice a place to rest, and Alice told him she came from outside the Cursed Land and might have encountered the Sun God in the distant past.
• When Nim asked what betrayal meant, Alice refused to explain and said that Fate's Gift was never free.
• Nim led Alice through Moon City's gate, where a crowd of residents had gathered to greet them.

Alice arrived in Moon City and was treated as a divine being, then contacted Klein after a strange visitor with a Monocle frightened her. Klein’s divinations about Alice gave contradictory results, and Alice’s prayer reached him just before she dreamed of Song Shu proposing a gambling game.

• Nim introduced Alice to Moon City’s residents as Miss Fortune, but Alice fainted to avoid addressing them herself.
• A visitor wearing a Monocle entered Alice’s room, and Alice revealed her Angel aura before using Restart to send him away and isolate the room.
• Alice remembered Klein’s unanswered messages and prayed to him through the Spirituality Barrier.
• Klein became worried when Alice did not respond, and repeated divinations produced conflicting results about her safety.
• Alice fell asleep while waiting for Klein’s reply and dreamed that Song Shu invited her to play a Gambling Game.
• Klein heard Alice’s prayer and excitedly called out to her Above the Gray Fog.

Alice told Klein she had encountered Amon and seen the fog-blocked Western Continent, then discussed Klein’s potion formula and the possibility of spreading the Fool’s faith. Back in Moon City, she left a sealed underground room with a young guide and found herself at a black tower.

• Alice met Klein Above the Gray Fog, reported that she had encountered Amon and seen the Western Continent behind a gray fog, and wondered whether the seal was connected to the Lord of Mysteries.
• Alice asked Klein about his Sequence 4 potion formula, and Klein said the potion was called Trickmaster.
• Alice proposed spreading the Fool’s faith among the people of the Land Abandoned by God, and Klein agreed on the condition that they pray only when necessary.
• Alice returned to her secret chamber, tried and failed to reconnect with her earlier dream, then woke and discovered another force sealing the room.
• Alice called for help, followed a young person out of the underground chamber, and emerged near a black tower in Moon City.

Alice visited Moon City and promised its people a miracle, then left without revealing the Fool’s identity. She gathered spiritual materials in the Forsaken Land of the Gods and met Klein Above the Gray Fog, where he passed on Bernadette’s offer of the Wheel of Fortune Card of Blasphemy and said he might return to Backlund under a new identity.

• Nim welcomed Alice as an Angel, and Alice prophesied that Moon City would receive a miracle bringing new life, safe food, and a view of the Sun and Red Moon.
• When Nim offered Alice a Sealed Artifact containing Beyonder Characteristics, she refused it and left Moon City without telling him the Fool’s Honorific Name.
• Alice collected spiritual materials in the Forsaken Land of the Gods and learned from Klein that Edwina’s book had absorbed its former owners.
• Alice fell asleep beneath a ruined city gate and was awakened by the Tarot Club gathering, where Klein told her Bernadette had asked him to deliver the Wheel of Fortune Card of Blasphemy.
• Alice told Klein about Moon City and learned Bernadette had found him by impersonating Gehrman Sparrow; Klein said he might soon return to Backlund under a new identity.

Klein and Alice discussed stealing the Antigonus Family Notes, Alice’s advancement materials, and her plans to travel from the Land Abandoned by God. Alice then encountered Amon, who emerged from a coffin as a swarm of Worms of Time, and asked why he had been curious about the protagonist of a comic book.

• Klein reminded Alice that the Antigonus Family Notes were in St. Samuel's Church, and Alice proposed using her ties to the Goddess to help with the theft.
• Alice suggested joining Klein’s new identity as his daughter, while Klein questioned whether the Goddess interfered in her fate.
• Alice told Klein that someone had offered her a Sealed Artifact containing the Beyonder Characteristics for her Sequence 4 and Sequence 3 potions, but she had fled rather than accept it.
• Alice said goodbye to Klein and wondered whether leaving the Land Abandoned by God would leave her stranded at sea.
• Alice found a coffin, fled after a jointed hand grabbed her ankle, and then fell when a Monster limb tripped her.
• Alice pulled bones from the skeleton in the coffin, revealing Worms of Time that assembled into Amon; after he helped her up, she asked why he had been curious about a comic book’s protagonist.

Alice encountered Amon in the Forsaken Land of the Gods, then joined the Tarot Club and discussed her unavoidable future death and need for a mother in her next life. She left the meeting considering whether Evernight would agree to become that mother.

• Amon claimed he had been searching for a former lover for thousands of years, then unexpectedly let Alice go.
• Alice joined the Tarot Club and asked Cattleya to tell Bernadette that she could make a deal with Alice if she recited Mr. Fool's honorific name each morning.
• Alice revealed that Bernadette might become her mother, explaining that she was destined to die before becoming Fate again and would need a mother for her next life.
• The Tarot Club members reacted with alarm as Alice discussed which beings could serve as her mother, while Emlyn offered to contact vampire leaders.
• Alice suggested that Evernight would be the most suitable mother and decided she would ask whether Evernight would agree.

At the Tarot Club gathering, the World traded the Ocean Songster Potion Formula and Main Ingredient to Alger in exchange for a Primitive Island’s coordinates and a future expedition together. Alice then discussed selling luck to Fors, and reminded the World that he still owed her a gift, leaving Klein anxious about her return and unfinished Honorific Name.

• Alice clarified that Bernadette was Roselle’s eldest daughter and asked whether becoming a Beyonder slowed mental development; Cattleya said it usually did not.
• The World gave Derrick the Notary Potion Formula and offered Alger the Ocean Songster Potion Formula and Main Ingredient, prompting Alger to request a private conversation with the World.
• Alger offered the coordinates of a Primitive Island and asked to join the World on its first exploration after he advanced; the World accepted and agreed to provide the formula and Main Ingredient after the gathering.
• Cattleya offered Fors sixty grams of Meteor Crystal for 600 pounds, and Fors arranged to make the trade the following day.
• Fors asked Alice for luck to help her earn money, and Alice asked what price Fors would pay for 220 pounds of good fortune.
• Alice reminded the World that he owed her a gift, and the World acknowledged his promise to give her one after she returned.

Alice joked with the Tarot Club and gave Emlyn an absurd explanation for the Sanguine, while Alger pieced together a theory about Alice, Mr. Fool, and the Evernight Goddess. The gathering ended with Fors suggesting Alice write fiction, which Alice feared could anger Angels and True Gods.

• Alice offered to charge Fors 250 pounds for ice cream, then explained that “two-fifty” meant a fool, leaving the Tarot Club wondering where the expression came from.
• Alger connected Alice’s old-fashioned sayings and ties to the Evernight Goddess with Emperor Roselle and concluded that Mr. Fool may once have lived as a mortal and been helped by the Goddess.
• Cattleya confirmed the black hunting lizard spinal fluid cost 1,800 pounds, Fors reported a possible lead for Emlyn, and Derrick offered a Sequence 5 vampire Beyonder Characteristic for ingredients.
• Alice teased Emlyn by asking why the World did not object to being called a bald baboon, then declared that the Sanguine were gods who ruled over rats.
• Fors suggested Alice write fiction, but Alice refused because Angels and True Gods might come after her.

Alice asked Cattleya to replace her payment for a Mythical Creature’s blood with a crop that could grow in the contaminated darkness of the Forsaken Land of the Gods, prompting the Tarot Club to praise her mercy. The gathering then turned to the death of pirate Connors Victor and the human-trafficking network linked to him, which Alger and Cattleya agreed to investigate.

• Derrick told Alice that the City of Silver had killed the Crow-Shadow Serpent and described how its people survived by eating contaminated monsters.
• Alice asked Cattleya to change her payment to a crop that could grow in the Forsaken Land of the Gods, and Derrick and the other Tarot Club members praised her mercy.
• The World reported that Mad Captain Connors Victor and his crew had been found dead aboard the damaged One-Eyed Skeleton after a storm.
• Alger explained that the Church of Storms was investigating Connors Victor, who had links to the Colonial Population Disappearance Case and human traffickers.
• Alice speculated that the large-scale trafficking might support a cult or an evil ritual, and Alger and Cattleya offered to investigate further.

At the Tarot Club, Alice revealed that the Western Continent was sealed behind gray mist and that only a fully revived Mr. Fool was likely to open it. After the meeting, she told Klein that Moon City’s residents had been ordered by the Ancient Sun God to greet anyone emerging from the mist with the word “Chernobyl.”

• Cattleya reported that Gehrman Sparrow had killed the Undying King's second mate, The Butcher Gilseais, and Alice urged him to claim the bounty for his clues.
• Alice told the Tarot Club about Moon City’s deformed residents and explained that she had gone there seeking a route to the Western Continent.
• With Klein’s permission, Alice revealed that gray mist sealed the Western Continent and said a fully revived Mr. Fool could probably undo the seal.
• Alice added that others might also be capable of opening the seal, prompting the Tarot Club members to worry that she and Mr. Fool might become enemies.
• After Mr. Fool adjourned the meeting, Alice told Klein that the Ancient Sun God had instructed Moon City’s residents to greet whoever emerged from the mist with the word “Chernobyl.”

Klein struggled to choose a gift for Alice and settled on the idea of giving her a messenger contract. Alice returned to the City of Silver’s camp in Afternoon Town, while Cattleya told Frank Lee that Miss Fortune had a commission for him.

• Alice told Klein that Amon was another person who might be able to undo the seal, and Klein cut off their connection after she accused him of thinking about turning her into a marionette.
• Klein searched for a gift for Alice and decided to consider giving her a contract for a messenger.
• The Chief used Alice’s Tarot Cards while exploring Afternoon Town with Derrick and found that the team’s progress became extremely fast.
• Alice returned to camp, startled the Chief awake, and asked for an animal-skin mat before falling asleep beneath the dark sky.
• Cattleya found Frank Lee in his room and learned he had cultivated a new mushroom using the flesh and blood of an unknown Rose Bishop.
• Cattleya told Frank Lee that Miss Fortune had a commission for him, and he asked what it was.

Cattleya asked Frank Lee to help Alice find a crop that could grow in darkness and contaminated soil, while Alice pondered what turning point she had found in her game with Fate. She left the Chief with plans to approach Ouroboros and asked him to help send her body back if necessary.

• Cattleya told Frank Lee about Alice's request, and he hurriedly ate before writing to Gehrman and summoning his messenger.
• Cattleya saw Headless Lady Daly through her crystal ball, met her gaze, and felt pain in her eyes before concluding she had witnessed an ancient evil being.
• Alice considered how the Fate pathway's advancement rituals might represent breaking free from Fate, then wondered whether recognizing herself as a toy was the turning point she had found.
• The Chief warned Alice that he remembered a previous Fate cycle, and Alice confronted him about knowing Derrick's secret and hedging his trust in Mr. Fool.
• Alice told the Chief that Mr. Fool already knew, accepted the Tarot Card deck as his payment, and asked him to help return her body if Ouroboros would not.

Klein answered Frank Lee’s letter, then helped Alice send her body and a Crow-Shadow Serpent corpse back to the real world, where he gave her a Notary’s messenger contract. Alice arrived at her home in Backlund and found a hooded stranger in the living room and a familiar woman vanish from the bedroom with an ocean-blue book.

• Klein questioned Frank Lee about his mushrooms and asked him to improve their safety, taste, and nutrition; he divined that Frank had been planted in soil but was still alive.
• Alice prayed to Klein at five in the morning and asked him to send her body back from the Forsaken Land of the Gods.
• Alice asked the Chief to arrange a sacrifice ritual, then had Derrick send her body and the Crow-Shadow Serpent’s corpse Above the Gray Fog.
• Klein returned Alice’s body to the real world, gave her a Notary’s contract for a messenger, and Alice left with the serpent’s corpse.
• Alice arrived at her home in Backlund, where she encountered a hooded woman in the living room and watched another woman disappear from the bedroom with an ocean-blue book.

Alice decided against pursuing Cassandra and chose to advance first, preparing and drinking the Misfortune Mage potion. She survived the turbulent River of Rippling Light and became a true Misfortune Mage, while the visions left her with questions about several people and events from her past.

• Alice abandoned the idea of using Restart to pursue Cassandra, then bound and knocked unconscious the woman who had come to steal something from her home.
• Alice asked Klein for the remaining potion ingredients and tools, dissected the Crow-Shadow Serpent, and prepared the Misfortune Mage potion.
• Before drinking the potion, Alice cast Fate Cycle on the unconscious woman to keep her asleep.
• The potion sent Alice into the River of Rippling Light, where she touched objects and saw visions of Will Auceptin, Song Shu, Klein, Amon, and other memories.
• Alice regained her footing in the river, returned to her body, and became a true Misfortune Mage.

After advancing to Sequence 4, Alice examined the Fate abilities she had altered and tried to piece together the turning points in her past. She woke the brown-haired woman and set off to take her to the police, but stopped when she discovered that a Witch seemed to have lived in her bedroom.

• Alice reconstructed fragments of her past and wondered what had drawn Amon’s interest in her and her connection to the Key of Light.
• Alice reviewed the Misfortune Mage abilities in her Beyonder Characteristic, noting that she had removed an emotion-dulling ability’s description and altered the power to inflict misfortune.
• Alice cleaned the blood from the scene, woke the bound brown-haired woman with cold water, and told her to come to the police station to turn herself in.
• Alice introduced herself as Briel Rose, freed the woman’s hands, and led her out, but noticed her clothes were wet and went to find her something to wear.
• Alice opened the bedroom wardrobe, sensed a strange effect and unfamiliar traces in the room, and concluded that a Witch seemed to have lived there.

Alice recognized that the woman from her earlier vision was likely Selwyn Magritte, then brought Ayla Silvan to the police station to report a break-in. There, Alice was arrested for allegedly fleeing without paying rent, and she ended the chapter waiting in a reception room after asking for ice cream.

• Alice recalled that Selwyn Magritte had become a Witch and wondered whether Selwyn was the protagonist of a new story involving Cassandra.
• Alice asked Ayla Silvan about the Beyonder she had previously met, then led her through Backlund toward the police station.
• Alice reported that someone had entered her house, but the officers found that nothing had been stolen.
• Brooks identified Alice as Briel Rose and arrested her for allegedly fleeing without paying rent at 36 Welsh Street.
• Alice told Ayla Silvan to leave, had Brooks remove the handcuffs, and followed him to the reception room, where she asked for ice cream.

Alice spoke with Klein Above the Gray Fog about her arrest over unpaid rent and his impending danger from the Rose School, then received Archbishop Anthony's invitation to St. Samuel's Church. She left the police station after Anthony admitted he had been the one to suggest she might have run away to avoid paying rent.

• Alice told Klein she was waiting at a police station because people thought she had fled to avoid paying rent, and he suggested she check her Church files.
• Klein warned Alice that the Rose School and the Mother Tree of Desire might threaten him, so she offered remote help through the seven unused Misfortune Charms.
• Alice and Klein joked about the charms' name and a Chinese idiom before ending their meeting.
• Archbishop Anthony contacted Alice in a dream, invited her to St. Samuel's Church, and admitted he had suggested she might have run away over rent.
• Alice left the reception room and found the three policemen playing Fighting Evil; they barely noticed when she told them she was leaving.

After Klein received a threatening telegram, he summoned Alice for protection and was ambushed by a Rose School Demigod while leaving Bayam. Alice killed the Demigod and helped Klein capture Admiral of Blood Sennior as a Marionette, then departed for St. Samuel Church.

• Alice headed to St. Samuel Church after leaving the police station, while Klein received a telegraph message reading, "I see you."
• Klein arranged for Reinette Tinekerr to guard him and asked Alice to come when he realized the message signaled danger.
• A Rose School Demigod attacked Klein in the woods, and Klein used a Good Luck Charm to call Alice as an ice arrow threatened him.
• Alice killed the Demigod with her Great Serpent ability and discovered Sennior nearby as a Vengeful Spirit.
• Sennior offered to serve Alice, but Klein made him his Marionette after Alice trapped him; Alice then warned that a meteorite would erase the scene and left for St. Samuel Church.

Alice met with Archbishop Anthony, who told her the Evernight Goddess had ordered the Church to include her in its holy scriptures. After considering her new status and her ties to Tingen City, Alice decided to return there, while asking Archbishop Anthony for help and money.

• Alice asked Archbishop Anthony why the Church planned to write her into its holy scriptures, and he confirmed it was a divine oracle.
• Alice considered whether she could receive a Saint's salary, but refused the duties that came with the position.
• Archbishop Anthony asked whether Alice planned to appear in her original identity, then told her the former Tingen City Nighthawks captain had become a bishop and stayed in the city.
• Alice said she wanted to return to Tingen City, and Archbishop Anthony explained that he could not arrange a Nighthawks entry mission that would achieve her purpose.
• Alice asked Archbishop Anthony to lend her money for unpaid rent, and he agreed while warning her not to rob a Church of Storms donation box.
• Alice was surprised to learn Archbishop Anthony had time off work, and he clarified that he meant the normal workday of people who had not consumed a Sleepless potion.

Alice asked Klein to send her money, then discussed her search for a trustworthy “mother” in case she faced true death; Klein offered to become one if no safer option existed. She planned to return to Tingen City before possibly joining the Church as a Saint, and Klein told her that her prophecy about Roselle’s Travels had come true.

• Alice left Archbishop Anthony, retrieved Apollo from her room, and fell asleep while waiting for Klein to wake.
• Above the Gray Fog, Alice asked Klein for money and considered who could serve as her “mother”; Klein realized he might be the only strong, trustworthy candidate and offered to advance to Angel before considering it himself.
• Alice joked about Klein and Amon having a child, then asked for her money so she could pay rent and return to Tingen City to visit her grave.
• Alice asked about Anderson, and Klein explained that the previous owner of Roselle’s Travels had become the book’s protagonist and entered its world.