Chapter Summaries

Klein bought degraded divine blood from Sno as a quieter, cheaper alternative to a Sun Talisman, then brought it above the Gray Fog to investigate its origin. His divination showed a man producing the blood through increasingly grotesque acts, and Klein recognized him as Lanclus.

• Sno offered Klein degraded divine blood from the True Creator as a discreet alternative to a Sun Talisman, and Klein bought it for one hundred pounds without paying for processing.
• Klein returned to 15 Minsk Street and sent the divine blood and two hundred ninety pounds above the Gray Fog.
• Klein divined the blood’s origin and saw a man repeatedly cutting himself to release increasingly dark blood.
• The man exposed a twisted pattern on his chest and unleashed a corrupting voice that caused Klein’s body and the palace above the Gray Fog to show signs of corruption.
• The Gray Fog stripped the madness and Loss of Control from Klein, who concluded that the man in the vision was Lanclus.

Klein suspected Mr. Devil was indirectly warning him that he had contact with the True Creator, but postponed investigating until the next Tarot Club gathering. In Backlund, Fors began suffering the Full Moon Whisper and finally prayed to The Fool.

• Klein turned the degraded divine blood from Lanclus into three talismans and suspected Mr. Devil had sold it cheaply to hint at his connection to the True Creator.
• Klein reasoned that Mr. Devil might be bound from speaking openly and decided to test him at the next Tarot Club gathering.
• Fors ate dinner while Hugh worried about her plan to pray to The Fool, and Hugh considered accepting the masked man's invitation.
• Fors was overwhelmed by the Full Moon Whisper, and Hugh urged her to pray when her prayers to the God of Steam and Machinery brought no relief.
• Fors finally struggled to recite The Fool's honorific name.

Klein answered Fors Wall’s prayer and cut off the Full Moon Whisper that was driving her toward loss of control. Fors recovered and returned to Hugh, while Klein considered his own uncertain situation.

• Klein heard a woman’s distressed prayer and recognized the faint murmur of the Full Moon Whisper.
• Klein connected to the prayer and brought Fors to the Gray Fog, where he asked whether she heard the murmur during every full moon.
• Fors met Mr. Fool and received his help, while Hugh watched her stop convulsing and recover.
• Fors woke beside Hugh and said that a mysterious, powerful existence had saved her, but she kept The Tarot Club secret.
• Klein considered whether Fors was connected to the Abraham family and regretted not buying Mr. Devil’s Makeup Art tutorial.

At the Tarot Club, Mr. Fool commissioned the members to assassinate Ambassador Backlund and read Perrdax’s diary, which stirred painful thoughts about Klein’s lost family and seemed to complete his potion digestion. Fors asked to buy the Trickmaster and Interrogator Potion Formulas, and Mr. Fool pressed Mr. Devil about what he was unable to say.

• Alger reported new pages of Roselle’s Diary and a possible link between the Secret Master Association and Intis, and Mr. Fool issued a mission to assassinate Ambassador Backlund.
• Klein read Perrdax’s diary about settling down and founding a noble family, then thought of Benson and Melissa and sensed that his potion might be fully digested.
• Sno acted restless at the gathering while Mr. Fool considered whether an oath prevented Mr. Devil from speaking freely.
• Fors asked to purchase the Trickmaster and Interrogator Potion Formulas for cash.
• Mr. Fool asked Mr. Devil whether he had something to say about the Creator.

Sno revealed that Lanevus was a vessel for the True Creator and proposed letting him escape Backlund so the official Beyonders could intercept him. The Tarot Club agreed to wait a week for Sno to arrange the escape, while Sno headed to meet Marich about the talisman.

• Sno told the Tarot Club that Lanevus was in his home and that the True Creator could replace him within half a year.
• Sno explained that he had created a temporary conflict between Lanevus and the True Creator, allowing him to control Lanevus for now.
• Sno proposed helping Lanevus flee south of the bridge before notifying the official Beyonders, and explained that other districts would hasten the True Creator's awakening.
• Hanged Man asked how to report the matter without endangering Mr. Devil, and Sno requested a week to arrange Lanevus's escape.
• Klein agreed to pass Sno's message along after Sno notified him through prayer.
• Sno went to meet Marich at the Brave Man Bar to discuss the talisman's effects and whether to use a messenger.

Sno sold Marich talismans and considered arranging work for the Wraith lady, then accidentally called Bernadette “Huang Beibei” when they met. Bernadette connected the name and a talisman’s activation phrase to her father, while Sno tried to explain himself as she confronted him.

• Sno visited Marich, offered talismans for three hundred pounds each, and proposed paying the Wraith lady for commissions with talismans under a contract.
• Marich and the Wraith lady discussed accepting a job that could earn them money, and the Wraith suggested asking Kaspars about the detective who had offended an important figure.
• Sno left Brave Man Bar and accidentally greeted Bernadette as “Huang Beibei,” prompting her to isolate them from the surrounding pedestrians with pea vines.
• Bernadette recalled her father’s childhood nickname and sayings, and connected them to the talisman Sno had offered for appraisal.
• Sno panicked at Bernadette’s scrutiny and asked whether she would believe he had mistaken her for someone else.

Sno explained to Bernadette why he called her Huang Beibei and revealed that her father had another surname and a hidden name for her. Bernadette asked whether Roselle was still alive, but Sno did not answer, leaving his connection to Roselle and the mysteries of his identity unresolved.

• Bernadette rejected Sno's claim that he had mistaken her for someone else and demanded to know why he called her Huang Beibei.
• Sno agreed to explain after Bernadette accepted his conditions: she could not press him about anything he withheld, and she had to pay for the information.
• Bernadette created a warded space, and Sno said that Roselle had another surname, Huang, while Sno also had the surname Feng.
• Sno explained that Huang Beibei came from a naming custom and said Bernadette had a hidden name that only her father could tell her.
• Bernadette asked whether Roselle was still alive, and the narrative clarified that Sno had never met the living Roselle and left the question unanswered.

Sno told Bernadette that her father, Roselle, was still alive after failing to escape his fate as the Black Emperor, and negotiated with her for an incomplete Sequence Zero formula and information about the catastrophe in Backlund. Bernadette agreed to his price and asked about Roselle’s language and later changes, while Sno withheld some answers and she prepared a contract to ensure the deal was trustworthy.

• Sno told Bernadette that Roselle had attempted to become the Black Emperor and was not truly dead, though Sno could not reveal where he was or how to save him.
• Bernadette asked about the Black Emperor’s advancement ritual, and Sno explained that an incomplete formula would cost several specified Beyonder Characteristics and could also earn her information about the Backlund catastrophe if she promised to help hunt a Silent Disciple after becoming an Angel.
• Bernadette accepted Sno’s terms and asked whether he understood the Rochard Language and whether Roselle’s later changes had resulted from switching Pathways.
• Sno confirmed that the Rochard Language belonged to people like them but refused to teach it, and said Roselle’s changes were mostly not caused by the Pathway switch.
• Bernadette offered a Sun Pathway Mysterious Item to establish a contract, with the option of using a Level 0 Sealed Artifact as a notary.

Sno traded intelligence with Bernadette about the Black Emperor ritual and looming disasters in Backlund, gaining a Beyonder Characteristic and a powerful potential ally. He chose to stay in Backlund and headed for Mr. A’s home to advance to Sequence Seven.

• Sno explained parts of the Black Emperor ritual to Bernadette while withholding its final step.
• Sno told Bernadette about the planned Primordial Demoness descent, True Creator’s Divine Descent Vessel, a coming Backlund tragedy, and a war planned by another powerful being.
• Sno revealed that he was Mr. V in the Aurora Society’s Backlund Diocese and gave Bernadette a chance to follow him to the Divine Descent Vessel before it tried to escape within three to seven days.
• Bernadette provided Sno with a Sequence Six Characteristic, her messenger’s summoning details, and Dawn of Wisdom’s contact method.
• Sno considered leaving Backlund aboard Bernadette’s ship but decided to remain and exchange intelligence for her support.
• Sno went to Mr. A’s home, intending to advance to Sequence Seven to suppress the dangerous potion side effects he had not yet identified.

Sno advanced to Sequence Seven, Zhuang Zhou's Fish, by brewing and drinking a potion made from a Hermit's Extraordinary Characteristic. After enduring the transformation, he assessed his new abilities and wondered what negative effects the potion might have left him with.

• Sno melted the Hermit's Extraordinary Characteristic with his spirituality while White Horse is Not a Horse protected him from the True Creator's corruption.
• Sno drank the potion and endured more than ten minutes of a disorienting transformation that made his body decay and heal without physical sensation.
• Sno thanked the True Creator for the unintended reinforcement that helped him endure the advancement, then used White Horse is Not a Horse to remove the lingering effects of the True Creator's Mutterings.
• Sno recognized that his physical abilities had increased and inherited the Shadow Ascetic's shadow magic as a Zhuang Zhou's Fish.
• Sno learned the names and functions of his four mind-related abilities and noted that his secrecy-focused powers had been strengthened.
• Sno began checking for negative effects, worrying that the Fish potion might have given him a seven-second memory.

Sno kept Lanevus confined and used piano music and hints of escape to keep him under pressure, while Lanevus convinced himself he had seen through Sno’s tests. After receiving a message that Marich wanted to see him, Sno met him at the Brave Man Bar, where Marich offered six hundred pounds and two charms.

• Sno checked on Lanevus, who stayed calm and insisted he had nowhere safe to escape to.
• Sno played fragments of the True Creator’s ravings to pressure Lanevus, then claimed he would be busy for several nights and told him to seize the chance to escape.
• Lanevus suspected Sno was testing him and convinced himself the claim about being away was a deliberate bluff.
• Sno received a letter from Kaspars saying Marich was looking for him, sealed the Corrupted Baron Trait, and went to the Brave Man Bar.
• Sno confirmed Kaspars was safe, then entered Marich’s card room, where Marich offered him six hundred pounds and two charms.

Audrey spoke with Sno at Countess Wolf’s ball, where he explained that he was waiting for a better opportunity to kill Ambassador Beckland without endangering bystanders or causing a diplomatic incident. Sno left before Cons noticed him, having already made four unsuccessful attempts to attack Beckland unnoticed.

• Audrey left Ambassador Beckland and met Sno, who teased her before reminding her that she was more than just a Spectator.
• Audrey discovered that Sno had secretly followed her into the ball, and he explained that he would not attack Beckland there because it could endanger Countess Wolf and innocent guests.
• Sno said the ambassador’s embassy balls offered a safer opportunity to act, then left when he noticed Cons from MI9 approaching Audrey.
• Audrey spoke with Cons after Sno vanished, while Sno recalled that Beckland’s instincts had thwarted four attempts to attack him at the ball.

Trissy received an address in her mind and went to meet Sno, who gave her a written request that she refused as too dangerous for a Sequence Six. The chapter ended with Sno smiling at her refusal.

• Trissy woke beside her maid, lamented that she had no Gil, and received an address in her mind after thinking of the being who had helped her.
• Trissy dressed to visit the West Borough and went to the address, where Lily opened the door and called her a stupid Witch.
• Sno greeted Trissy and invited her inside, confirming her suspicion that he was the black cat who had contacted her.
• Sno handed Trissy a written request, and Trissy refused, saying she was only Sequence Six.

Sno prepared continuous music to keep Lanevus calm while he attended an engagement at the Intis Embassy. At the embassy ball, Beckland remained as bait and targeted a young woman, unaware that Klein’s plans were underway.

• Sno recorded more music and instructed his butler to play records throughout the room while he was away.
• Lanevus watched Sno leave, then recognized the music as Sno’s attempt to keep him occupied and planned to endure it until he grew tired of it.
• Beckland attended a ball at the Intis Embassy, serving as bait while others prepared to act against him.
• Beckland spotted a young woman in a black evening gown, introduced himself, and persuaded her to accompany him to a room.

Sno and Trissy lured Baron Beckland into a private room at the embassy, where Sno defeated him with strange abilities and a fatal shot. After Beckland died, Trissy asked Sno whether he had known Beckland possessed a Mysterious Item.

• Trissy brought Beckland to a room on the second floor while Sno remained unnoticed beside her.
• Beckland attacked Sno, but Sno used Rabbit Cannot Catch Turtle to keep the flames and a later bullet from reaching him.
• Beckland revealed a puppet-like Mysterious Item and tried to fight back, but Sno's Divine Profanity overwhelmed him.
• Sno used Beckland as a shield against the slowed bullet, which struck Beckland with a Fatal Blow.
• After Beckland died, Trissy asked whether Sno had known about the Mysterious Item, and Sno answered that Beckland could not control his Spirit Body Threads.

Sno killed Beckland and escaped the embassy with Trissy while disguising the murder as an Aurora Society ritual. Meanwhile, Lanevus used a lullaby to lull the True Creator to sleep and escaped, leaving Sno a mocking note and the song’s score.

• Sno extracted Beckland’s Beyonder characteristics, arranged his corpse in an inverted-cross pose, and left the room with Trissy.
• Sno and Trissy descended through the embassy unnoticed, and Sno warned her that acting feminine could reveal her disguise.
• Lanevus revealed that he had advanced to Cipher Scholar and had spent weeks finding a melody that could calm the True Creator.
• Lanevus hummed the lullaby, regained control of his body, created a shadow duplicate, and escaped through the window.
• Lanevus left Sno a musical score and a taunting message thanking him for inspiring the method.

Sno reported Lanevus’s escape and Beckland Jean Madan’s death to Klein, who alerted Justice, Hanged Man, and Magician. Bernadette confronted Lanevus in Backlund and killed him, while the chapter left her being carried skyward by vines.

• Sno told Bernadette Gustav that Lanevus had escaped and Beckland Jean Madan was dead, then left the embassy with Trissy.
• Klein received Sno’s report and relayed it to Justice, Hanged Man, and Magician.
• Lanevus walked through the West Borough, planning to record a lullaby that would help him control the True Creator’s consciousness.
• Bernadette appeared from a carriage and attacked Lanevus before he could explain himself.
• Lanevus awakened the True Creator’s consciousness, but Bernadette’s death rune killed him in an explosion.
• Vines descended from the void and carried Bernadette into the sky.

After Lanevus died, the True Creator’s punishment nearly drove Sno out of control, but Trissy’s emotions helped him recover. Sno retrieved the Bone Fragment the True Creator had ordered him to find and discovered it had transformed into an Inverse Cross pendant.

• Trissy saw Sno convulsing under the effects of the True Creator’s punishment, and Sno urged her to send him happy or embarrassing thoughts.
• Trissy’s emotions helped Sno recover from the despair and resentment that had invaded his mind when Lanevus died.
• Sno cleansed the remaining corruption with White Horse is Not a Horse, gave Trissy a key, and told her to go to his house and pray to the True Creator.
• Sno ran to Lanevus’s corpse and retrieved the deathly pale Bone Fragment before official Beyonders arrived.
• Sno went to Mr. A’s residence and found the servants unconscious, then examined the Bone Fragment, which had fused with a Beyonder Characteristic into an Inverse Cross pendant.

After Lanevus was killed in the West Borough, church leaders investigated the scene and identified the killer as a High Sequence Beyonder of the Corpse Collector Pathway. Sno examined the living Inverse Cross, fed it a Conspirer characteristic, and discovered it could Shepherd several characteristics while its True Creator spirit demanded music.

• Horamick Haydn, Ace Snake, and Anthony Stevenson arrived at the West Borough after Lanevus's death and discussed an anonymous report and the destruction.
• Anthony identified the dead man as Lanevus and said his killer had used the Corpse Collector Pathway, while Ace Snake recalled Zilingus's killer.
• Sno examined the Inverse Cross and learned it countered divination, could trace diviners, and stayed quiet when given music.
• Sno placed a Conspirer characteristic on the Inverse Cross, which absorbed it and revealed that it was Shepherding Hunter, Provoker, Pyromaniac, and Conspirer characteristics.
• Sno extracted a Hunter characteristic and then played Lanevus's tune to appease the impatient Inverse Cross.

Sno deduced that the Inverse Cross grew by absorbing corruption and other degraded emotions, then wondered whether its True Creator spirit had separated from the True Creator’s shared consciousness. Meanwhile, MI9 and embassy officers investigated Beckland’s murder, but the evidence left them unable to identify the killer.

• Sno concluded that the Inverse Cross absorbed corruption rather than Beyonder Characteristics to grow.
• Sno noticed the True Creator spirit quieted when he played gentle music and considered whether it had broken free from the True Creator’s consciousness.
• After Lanevus died, the embassy officers recovered from despair and pain and discovered the scent of blood.
• MI9 and embassy officers examined Beckland’s body and found a gunshot wound, missing bullets and stolen Beyonder items and characteristics.
• A masked MI9 officer argued that the culprit was not among the guests and refused to hand over the attendees as suspects.