Recaps

Hobart rejected the Gas Association’s pressure, established contact between Klein disguised as Dawn Dantes and Chunas, and helped Audrey complete her first two assassinations with Xue. He then sabotaged Backlund’s gas storage sites and secretly arranged James’s death, leaving the city facing a gas crisis and the cause of the attacks concealed.

• Hobart refused to negotiate with the Gas Association, agreed to a military generator research project, and resisted Amyrius and Chunas’s attempt to test his strength.
• Klein, disguised as Dawn Dantes, met Chunas through a conversation about buying a hunting manor, while Hobart made twenty high-level Marauder pathway amulets with The Fool’s help.
• Hobart assured Earl Hall and his family that he would resolve the dispute with the Gas Association, then sent Audrey and Xue to assassinate two Aurora Society members.
• After Xue reported the missions and accepted Hobart’s offer of support for building an intelligence network, Hobart destroyed Backlund’s gas storage facilities in a series of explosions.
• Xue inspected the ruins and found workers preparing temporary gas tanks, while Hobart followed James’s party and secretly caused James’s Extraordinary abilities to fail during an ambush.
• Two assassins shot James, and his blood, bone marrow, and tissue fluid poured from his body until he died.

Hobart retaliated against the Gas Association’s attacks on Earl’s Light, leaving the Association weakened and Backlund’s lighting crisis unresolved. While he was away from the city, the public learned the Gas Association had framed Earl’s Light, and Hobart returned to a dinner where he offered only limited help restoring electric-light sales.

• Hobart killed James and extracted his Extraordinary Characteristics and Mystical Items, then sabotaged the Gas Association’s raids on Earl’s Light and its Power Plant.
• Hobart’s Alterations killed the Beyonders and demigod sent to attack the Power Plant, silencing the Gas Association’s backers.
• Alice examined James’s head at Georgina’s residence, thanked Hobart for avenging Edessak, and arranged to meet him again.
• Hobart negotiated potential electrical research cooperation with Wen Shidun, then agreed with Archibald to search for the City of Yadro the following week.
• The newspapers exposed the Gas Association’s conspiracy against Earl’s Light, and Backlund’s citizens protested while Hobart remained away.
• At Agshid Negan’s mediation dinner, Hobart said Earl’s Light could sell only one hundred light bulbs a day, leaving the prime minister shocked.

Hobart forced the Gas Association to accept heavy compensation and helped Earl's Light resume sales amid Backlund's lighting crisis. He then completed a working Teleportation Array linking Tuthuga Port and Long Tail Port.

• At dinner with Agshid, Duke Negan, and other officials, Hobart demanded that the Gas Association compensate Earl's Light and the victims of the chaos, and Duke Negan agreed to his terms.
• Christine proposed using a concealed space and a separate body to protect Hobart's bloodline while he advanced and dealt with Trensoost's curse, and Hobart began planning the method.
• Earl's Light's sales resumed, and its negotiators secured a 600,000-pound compensation agreement while the company received 36,000 orders in one day.
• Hobart and Fors prepared Teleportation Arrays in Tuthuga Port and Long Tail Port, and Hobart used a Secrets Sorcerer Extraordinary Characteristic to connect them through the Spirit World.
• Hobart activated the array, which began glowing with seven-colored light and formed an illusory door.

Hobart and Fors established their first Teleportation Array and planned further transport links while Hobart prepared to advance to Sequence 2. He also advanced Xue, recruited Witch Research Society members, and began searching with Archibald for the City of Yadro, where he sensed a gigantic plant beneath the earth.

• Hobart successfully tested the Teleportation Array with Fors, then planned to build another between Long Tail Port and Crowlier City and recruited loyal Beyonders to operate it.
• Hobart asked Archbishop Simpson to arrange an identical body and prayed to the Goddess of the Night for a Mystical Item that could conceal an area; she requested his help obtaining a Sealed Artifact from the God of War Church.
• Fors introduced eight Beyonders to the Teleportation Array, while Hobart advanced Xue to Sequence 6 and assigned her to establish an intelligence network in Tuthuga Port.
• Hobart discussed the Witch Research Society's theories with Audrey, promised its members work and advancement opportunities, and later arranged to acquire two bankrupt Gas Companies.
• Hobart and Archibald searched near the Hornacis Mountain Range for the City of Yadro, and Hobart sensed a gigantic plant beneath the ground with the Fork of Healing.

Hobart and Archibald discovered that the City of Yadro lay beneath the Sonia Sea and forced their way inside with the Sun Scepter. They reached a black palace, where Hobart’s Order Crystals protected them from the throne’s influence, but a battle with powerful monsters left them facing new threats.

• Hobart questioned local children and learned that a fisherman had dredged up a corroded Bronze Mirror bearing a Solomon Empire design from the lake.
• Hobart used the Sun Scepter to locate the City of Yadro beneath the Sonia Sea, then brought Archibald into it with a beam of sunlight.
• Hobart and Archibald hid from the city’s monsters and traveled to a black palace, where they defeated a Fallen Earl monster and collected its Extraordinary Characteristic.
• Hobart gave Archibald and his marionette Order Crystals after the Stone Chair in the palace hall began drawing them toward it.
• A Three-Headed Saint Hall attacked Hobart and Archibald, and Hobart manipulated two other monsters into fighting it.
• The Three-Headed Saint Hall escaped into the shadows, while the Light Mass Person and Electricity Person turned their attention toward Hobart and Archibald.

Hobart and Archibald battled several powerful monsters in Yadro’s ruins before Hobart drove off the rule-bound White Villa. They reached the hidden settlement of the Trensoost Family, where Bi Qi’er revealed that his branch guarded a key to the Trensoost Empire.

• Hobart and Archibald fought the Light Mass Person and Electricity Person while the Three-Headed Saint Hall interfered, and the monsters eventually withdrew.
• As dusk transformed the ruins, Hobart and Archibald avoided the White Villa, which followed them and attacked.
• Hobart exploited flaws in the White Villa’s ability to restore rules, damaged it with falling stones and explosions, and forced it to flee.
• Hobart and Archibald found the Trensoost Family’s hidden town, and Bi Qi’er welcomed them after Hobart showed the family badge.
• Bi Qi’er explained that his branch guarded certain things while Hobart’s branch was responsible for welcoming the returning Night Emperor.
• Hobart asked for clues to the Trensoost Empire, and Bi Qi’er revealed that his branch possessed the key to enter it.

Hobart met the Trensoost Family in the City of Yadro, learned about the Solomon Empire and its hidden history, and received a Crystal Key to the Trensoost Empire. After returning to Backlund, he was told that the church could not help refine a body, not even with its angels’ power.

• Bi Qi'er brought Hobart before prime minister Abbott and the Cabinet, who explained the Trensoost Family’s history, the monsters in the ruins, and the strength of the True Creator’s faction during the Fourth Epoch.
• Abbott gave Hobart a Crystal Key to the Trensoost Empire and asked him to try to recover the Tamara Family’s narrow-necked Glass Bottle; Hobart also studied the family’s historical records and learned about Tudor’s mausoleums and the Nether Emperor’s trap.
• Hobart and Archibald left the City of Yadro through a hidden passage, and Archibald refused a share of their spoils because he had pledged to help Hobart find the city.
• Hobart sacrificed a Fallen Earl Extraordinary Characteristic and considered cultivating Elliot or Angus into a demigod.
• Doffis told Hobart that Allen had been waiting with an urgent message, and Allen led him to Archbishop Simpson.
• Simpson told Hobart that the church could not refine a body, even with the help of its angels.

Hobart failed to find a way to refine a body for himself, so he set aside his advancement problem and sought the Trensoost Empire Ship to strengthen his forces at sea. He found the cursed ship, eased its Curse, and secured Servia Trensoost and the crew’s allegiance in exchange for bringing them the Ancient Death God’s corpse.

• Simpson told Hobart that the Life Research Institute could not refine a body from his blood, and Hobart considered whether the Earth Mother had altered his bloodline.
• Hobart traveled to the misty island, met Gonzalo and his captain, and learned that Gonzalo knew where the Trensoost Empire Ship had drifted.
• Hobart reached the Empire, met Duke Servia, and learned that Salinger’s Curse made the crew die repeatedly while leaving them trapped and unable to feel.
• Hobart used Mr. Azik’s mark to reduce the Curse’s effects, then persuaded Servia and the crew to swear allegiance by offering to bring them the Ancient Death God’s corpse.
• Servia explained the ship’s original plan to lure and attack Salinger, and led Hobart toward the compartment where the corpse was meant to be stored.

Hobart restored the Trensoost Empire’s ability to sail and brought its crew into the sunlight, while Edwina investigated a teleportation array connecting Longtail Island to Tuthuga Port. After Xue asked the Creator for help rescuing a friend, Hobart reached a warehouse confrontation involving several Witches.

• Hobart placed the Ancient Death God's corpse aboard the Trensoost Empire, allowing the ship to move again, and guided it through the Underworld to the Mist Sea.
• Edwina used Fors’s document to enter a warehouse at Tuthuga Port, discovered a teleportation array, and traveled to Longtail Island, where she observed its unusual society.
• Hobart accepted Princess Alice’s invitation to a symphony and later received a note from Xue asking for help with an investigation into her father’s death.
• Xue prayed to the Creator for help rescuing her friend from a warehouse, and Hobart saw that Triss and Sherman had been captured by Viscount Stafford and Katerina Pelae.
• Hobart arrived at the warehouse wearing a Black Crystal mask and greeted the Witches inside.

Hobart defeated and killed Katerina, uncovered the truth behind Xue’s father’s death, and recruited Xue as his intelligence officer after revealing the King’s plan to become a god. The chapter ended with Alger witnessing a colossal phantom ship bearing a black-crown flag confront the Flesh and Blood Tree Ship at Tuthuga Port.

• Hobart cut off Katerina’s mirror abilities and burned her to death, then severed her resurrection connection and destroyed her spirit.
• Xue defeated Viscount Stafford with Sherman’s help, but Stafford’s spirit revealed that Mason Dil had been executed after discovering the King’s secret before it disintegrated.
• Hobart took Xue and Sherman away, questioned Stafford’s spirit, and learned that Mason Dil had tried to warn the three major Churches.
• Hobart told Xue that the King sought godhood through a process that had consumed hundreds of thousands of lives, and Xue agreed to become his Intelligence Officer.
• Alger arrived at Tuthuga Port and saw the Flesh and Blood Tree Ship appear, followed by a giant silver-white ship phantom carrying a black-crown flag.

Hobart witnessed the Empire Ship destroy the Rose School’s pirate fleet, prepared his businesses for the coming war, and expanded his political and technological alliances. At the Tarot Club, he negotiated for military intelligence and Sanguine records, then began explaining how Outer Gods had influenced the ancient gods.

• The Trensoost Empire Ship destroyed the Flesh and Blood Tree Ship and its fleet with white flames, while Alger recognized the ship and noticed the order prevailing in Tuthuga Port.
• Hobart prepared for war by arranging construction supplies and telephone plans, then learned from Alice that nobles were withdrawing their investments from Gas Companies and gave her evidence against a Witch leader.
• Hobart negotiated with Princess Alice for information on Loen’s military deployments and reached an agreement with Archbishop Haydn for cooperation between Earl’s Light and the Steam Church.
• Hobart saw Melissa and Tyrone behaving like a couple, told Audrey he planned to acquire Gas Companies, and attended the Tarot Club, where Leonard agreed to trade for a demigod-level Lawyer charm and Cattleya asked about the Teleportation Array blueprints.
• Emlyn agreed to obtain Sanguine records about Empress Ol'Nia in exchange for information about the Bound God, and Hobart told the Tarot Club that Outer Gods had influenced at least two ancient gods before the Second Epoch’s divine war.

Hobart explained how the Outer Gods influenced the ancient gods and traced the Bound God’s enslavement to the Desire Mother Tree, while the Tarot Club discussed the Trensoost Empire and recent events. The meeting ended with Leonard reporting upheaval in Backlund, including a royal secret that Klein recognized as connected to himself.

• Hobart theorized that the Outer Gods sought gods’ Extraordinary Characteristics and that the Blood Ancestor fought to escape the Fallen Mother Goddess’s pollution, while Emlyn mistakenly concluded that she had sacrificed herself to save the world.
• Hobart explained that the God of Spiritual Items had dealt with the Desire Mother Tree, later became the Bound God, and was now polluted and trapped; he said Sua had been created from a Sequence 1 characteristic torn from Him.
• Hobart corrected his account of the Fourth Epoch conflict, revealing that the Nether Emperor, Mr. Door, and several great angels had supported the True Creator’s faction against the Six Gods.
• Alger reported seeing the Trensoost Empire at Tuthuga Port, and Hobart described the ship’s role, its destructive power, and the vanished City of Yadro where it had been found.
• Derrick prepared to travel to Afternoon Town to clear monsters near the Giant King’s Court, while Leonard reported that Backlund’s Gas Industry had lost its struggle against Earl’s Light and that the Church suspected the Royal Family of a secret project.

At a Tarot Club gathering, Hobart warned that war was approaching and discussed George III’s secret preparations to become a god, while Derrick arranged to trade a Lord Tree for electric lights in Silver City. Hobart demonstrated Teleportation Arrays to Loen’s military leaders and escalated his campaign against the Aurora Society; afterward, he studied records about Ol’Nia and questioned where the third Sequence 1 Moon pathway Characteristic had gone.

• The World and Hobart told the Tarot Club that George III sought godhood and that war among the Northern Continent’s powers appeared increasingly unavoidable.
• Hobart offered Silver City electric lighting in exchange for a whole Lord Tree, and Derrick persuaded Colin to postpone an exploration so they could hunt one.
• Hobart arranged a coal-powered generator for Silver City and helped Audrey complete an assassination before watching for Aurora Society agents.
• Hobart showed Alice, Georgina, and Amyrius a Teleportation Array moving cargo between Backlund and Long Tail Port, then offered to reserve future sales for Loen.
• Xue assassinated a target, fought Aurora Society divine envoys with the Sealed Artifact “1-107,” and helped Hobart bait the society into sending stronger forces.
• Hobart read the records about Ol’Nia, theorized about Lilith’s survival and condition after the divine war, and wondered where the third Sequence 1 Moon pathway Characteristic was.

Hobart uncovered the Earth Mother’s plan to trap Trensoost in a body made from Eris and learned that his mother, April, held a secret tied to the Goddess. Meanwhile, Derrick’s electric light brought hope to Silver City, and Hobart recruited Moira and Vina to help manage the Creator’s divine kingdom.

• Hobart reported what he had learned about Trensoost and the Mist of Uncertainty to the Earth Mother, who agreed to refine Eris’s body and revealed that April would explain her secret after advancing to angelhood.
• Derrick lit an electric lamp in Silver City’s plaza, prompting residents to praise the Omniscient and Almighty God; Colin wept as the light shone, and Derrick trained others to maintain the equipment before the expedition to the Giant King’s Court departed.
• A mutated rat wearing a crystal monocle watched Silver City’s electric lights and discussed the technology before returning to its cave, revealing that Amon’s avatars had wagered over which city would find a way out unaided.
• Hobart accelerated construction projects, pursued leads on Eris and the Aurora Society, and arranged for the Balk Family and Gnostic Council to send workers to the Creator’s divine kingdom.
• Hobart welcomed Moira and Vina to the Country of Disorder, clarified that they had come to work rather than serve the Creator in the manner they had imagined, and began explaining their duties.

Hobart trained Moira and Vina to sort prayers in the Creator’s divine kingdom while Backlund’s new industries expanded. When the Fosac Empire bombed the city, Orseya Tamara ambushed Hobart, but he killed her, learned secrets about the Tamara Family, and was then invited by Princess Alice to hear a symphony.

• Hobart taught Moira and Vina how to inspect prayers, keep their work confidential, and manage their duties in the Creator’s divine kingdom.
• Hobart discussed selling electric motor technology to foreign buyers as he anticipated a coming conflict, and Fosac airships began bombing Backlund.
• Hobart repelled bombs near Earl’s Light, but Orseya Tamara attacked him; he pursued her through the streets and killed her after a prolonged fight.
• Hobart questioned Orseya’s spirit, learned the locations of four Tamara Family strongholds and details about the Mist of Uncertainty, then named her short sword Sealed Artifact 1-114.
• Georgina arrived at Earl’s Light and told Hobart that Princess Alice had invited him to hear a symphony.

Hobart negotiated with Princess Alice to establish the South Baylam Duchy on the Southern Continent in exchange for supporting Loen against Fosac, then arrived to take possession of its territory. The chapter ended with his forces beginning the takeover of Anrelu City, which Hobart intended to make the duchy’s capital.

• Hobart secured Loen’s agreement to grant him four Southern Continent regions, establish arms factories with Loen’s support, and publicly announce his duchy, while promising to contain Fosac’s colonial army and aid no other country.
• Hobart told Audrey about the agreement, dispatched officials and more than seventy Beyonders to the Southern Continent, and prepared to build the duchy during the war.
• Xue, Klein, Christine, Todd, and Earl Hall’s family read the news of Hobart’s elevation, while Audrey realized she might become a duchess.
• Hobart arrived with his forces at Anrelu City, where Colonel Curt received orders to withdraw Loen’s troops and surrender the territory.
• Hobart ordered Curt to evacuate the barracks and declared that Anrelu City would become the capital of the South Baylam Duchy.

Hobart negotiated with Alice and Amyrius to support Loen’s planned bombing of Saint Millon and urgently construct six Teleportation Arrays, while securing industrial technology for the South Baylam Duchy. Later, Xue’s attempt to assassinate Aurora Society members led her into a trap, and Hobart and two other demigods attacked Botis, who had captured her in the Box of the Ancient Days.

• Hobart agreed to command the bombing raid on Saint Millon in exchange for Loen providing industrial technology, and Alice approved support for ten major categories and sixteen minor items.
• Hobart sold Loen six Teleportation Arrays for 1.2 million pounds and promised to arrange them within two days.
• Hobart arranged for Tony Family demigods and Sequence 5s to join the coming battle, promised the family ten additional Beyonder slots, and planned a risky assassination operation with Xue as bait.
• Hobart gave Xue a talisman and escape artifact, while promising her the Punishment Knight Potion Recipe if she completed the operation.
• Xue assassinated two Aurora Society targets but was trapped by a Level 0 Sealed Artifact, the Box of the Ancient Days.
• Hobart, Angus, and Doffis arrived and attacked Botis, the Aurora Society Saint who had trapped Xue.

Hobart and his allies seized the Box of the Ancient Days from Botis, tracked the Aurora Society’s ambush to a villa, and killed Botis and several enemy demigods. After settling the spoils and renewing contracts with Hunt and Maximilian, Hobart restored the vanished street in front of official demigods and left with Xue.

• Hobart, Doffis, and Angus overwhelmed Botis in Backlund and seized the Box of the Ancient Days before escaping the arriving official demigods.
• Hobart tracked Botis to a villa north of Backlund, where the group fought Botis, the Three-Headed Saint Hall, a Black Knight, an Iron-Blooded Knight, and a War Bishop.
• Hobart’s group killed Botis, the Black Knight, and the Iron-Blooded Knight, while the Three-Headed Saint Hall escaped and the War Bishop fled seriously injured; Hobart found an Iron-Blooded Cross Society badge on a corpse.
• Hobart divided the spoils with Doffis and Angus, signed new contracts with Hunt and Maximilian, and sacrificed the battle’s gains to the Country of Disorder.
• Hobart appeared before four official demigods, restored the missing stretch of street with the Box of the Ancient Days, and took Xue away.

Hobart and Xue crippled the Aurora Society, while Fors delivered Botis's head to Dorian and received promises of help with her Abraham Family advancements. Hobart then supported Malva's surprise air raid on Saint Millon; the fleet dropped bombs under heavy attack and began retreating after explosions struck the industrial district.

• Hobart told Xue that the operation had eliminated four of the Aurora Society's five Saints and asked her to publicize the Society's defeat.
• Hobart sealed the dangerous Box of the Ancient Days in the Country of Disorder and named it 0-72.
• Fors gave Dorian Botis's head, and Dorian promised to provide advancement recipes, materials, and help with Fors's Secrets Sorcerer ritual.
• Hobart joined Malva's fleet of twenty-four airships as it approached Saint Millon under cover of a cloud, then helped it reach the industrial district after the fleet was detected.
• Fosac's defenses attacked the airships, destroying five before they could drop bombs, while the surviving crews released their bombs and Hobart distorted three explosions into Saint Millon's streets.
• Malva ordered the fleet to retreat, declaring that they had already won.

Hobart helped the Loen airships escape the Fosac Empire’s attack on Saint Millon, then used the victory to secure technology from the Loen Royal Family and promote the Creator’s faith. He brought Audrey to Anrelu, where he prepared to meet with the Native Kings and generals gathered there.

• Malva ordered the airships to retreat from Saint Millon, but Fosac angels destroyed most of them until Hobart used the Doomsday Box and the Creator’s power to save the eight survivors.
• Hobart provoked the Fosac leadership with a false-body appearance, while Alexei ordered Vasily to contact Jonah and the Balk Family and seek to stabilize relations with the Creator’s forces.
• Hobart returned the airships to their command crew, preached the Creator’s principles, and watched Malva advance to War Bishop after the raid.
• Leonard read that eight of the twenty-four airships had returned, while Hobart negotiated additional technological support from the Loen Royal Family and attended a celebratory ball with Malva and Locke.
• Hobart took Audrey to Anrelu, where Donna called her “Sister-in-law” as the gathered Native Kings and generals awaited Hobart’s summons.

Hobart arranged the South Baylam Duchy’s land policies and negotiated secret cooperation with the Fosac Empire, trading information about George III’s mausoleums for two colonial states. After preparing for the coming war, he returned to Longtail Island, where Fors advanced to Scribe.

• Hobart outlined plans to reclaim and redistribute land in the Saint Norsay Basin, bring local immigrants into government, and address conflict with southern natives through work and territorial expansion.
• Hobart told his officials to publicly support Loen in its war with the Fosac Empire while continuing to develop the duchy, then returned to Anrelu City and met Lawrence and Governor Jonah.
• Hobart secretly offered the Fosac Empire information about George III’s mausoleums and cooperation against his ascension; Emperor Alexei I agreed to transfer Salado State and Cordova State to the South Baylam Duchy.
• Hobart arranged a staged Fosac retreat and ordered preparations for deploying troops, while planning to use the fighting to justify further technical support from Loen.
• Hobart returned to Longtail Island, supervised Fors’s advancement to Scribe, and told her to record a demigod’s ability daily and travel to document cultures; Fors said Dorian wanted to meet him.

Hobart imposed sweeping political and property controls on South Baylam’s nobles, then launched a surprise attack on the Tamara Family’s hidden valley using the Sun God’s Chariot. The attack devastated the valley, and Peidi Tamara emerged to face Hobart as the surviving Tamara members tried to escape.

• Hobart announced that South Baylam would attack the Fosac Empire’s colonies, then compelled the local nobles and warlords to join an Outer Cabinet and accept the nationalization of land, resources, and population.
• Hobart returned to Backlund and used the Black Emperor card and Sun Scepter to summon the Sun God’s Chariot and search for the Tamara Family’s hidden valley.
• Hobart found the black tree marking the valley and blasted it with sunlight, burning the tree and dispersing the fog that concealed the Tamara Family’s home.
• Lawrence and the Gnostic Council arrived to encircle escaping Tamara members, recognized Hobart as the Creator, and praised his power.
• Hobart drove his chariot toward the temple, absorbed the valley’s corrupting fog, and destroyed many Tamara Beyonders with Light Orbs.
• Peidi Tamara burst from the ground as the only angel in the valley, intending to hold Hobart off while the surviving family members escaped.

Hobart led the Creator’s forces in a devastating assault on Tamara Family strongholds, but Pedi escaped after summoning a contaminated Spirit World creature. The Balk Family recovered substantial spoils, and Moira returned from the Creator’s divine kingdom with a request for more Beyonders to serve there.

• Hobart attacked the Tamara Family’s valley stronghold with the Sun Scepter, killed many Beyonders, and drove Pedi to escape after he summoned a contaminated sea-snail-like creature.
• Hobart destroyed four more Tamara Family strongholds but failed to find Eris or Tamara, then met Arianna while the Balk Family searched the ruins.
• The Balk Family recovered ninety-two Extraordinary Characteristics, Sealed Artifacts, and wealth worth about 800,000 pounds, while Hobart told discouraged troops that a war in South Baylam Duchy would soon offer more merit.
• At the victory banquet, Lawrence reported finding tattooed corpses in the villas, and Hobart recalled that the Tamara Family might still have maintained Fourth Epoch slave practices.
• Moira returned to the Balk Family’s altar from the Creator’s divine kingdom and told Lawrence that more Beyonders might soon be needed to work there.

Audrey advanced to Sequence 5 while Hobart watched over her, and Hobart discussed the wars and the South Baylam Duchy’s unrest with the Hall family. As Hobart prepared to attend a nobles’ ball in Backlund, Eris and Tamara killed Peidi and seized his Extraordinary Characteristics; Hobart later uncovered the Tamara Family’s connection to the Glynt Family.

• Audrey drank the Potion and advanced to Sequence 5, then discussed her new abilities and dream-related risks with Hobart.
• Hobart explained to Earl Hall and Hibbert why he intended to let a civil war break out in the South Baylam Duchy, while the war on the Northern Continent continued to cause enormous casualties.
• Eris revealed that Peidi’s Tamara bloodline had made him a Believer, and Tamara killed Peidi and extracted his Extraordinary Characteristics.
• Hobart provoked the South Baylam Duchy’s rebels after they sent an envoy to negotiate, while Georgina finalized a deal to buy Teleportation Array blueprints.
• At Earl Vincent’s ball, Hobart rejected the nobles’ plan to influence the South Baylam Duchy through their business ties, secretly retrieved Viscount Glynt’s ring, and learned that Carl and the other recruited noble children supported him.
• Hobart examined the notebooks hidden inside Glynt’s ring and discovered that the Glynt Family descended from a branch of the Tamara Family that had escaped its valley more than eight hundred years earlier.

Hobart learned more about the Tamara Family’s factions and the Glynt Family’s past before attending the Tarot Club, where the members discussed Rosell’s diaries and George III’s plans. The chapter ended with Hobart asking the World how much of the Fool’s power had recovered, as he needed the Fool’s help with his family’s Curse.

• Hobart read about the Tamara Family’s three factions, its civil war, and Pedi’s role in helping members leave to form the Glynt Family.
• Hobart returned the family notebooks to Glaint, accepted one of his Grade 2 Sealed Artifacts, and encouraged him to look toward the future.
• Hobart checked telephone sales, spoke with Audrey about Longtail Island’s development, and attended the Tarot Club with Fors.
• Cattleya gave Klein an entire book of Rosell’s later diaries and asked whether Adam would help George III become a god and where Rosell’s secret mausoleum might be.
• Klein answered that Adam probably would not offer George III much help and suggested that Rosell’s mausoleum might be in the Mist Sea, on Primordial Island, or in the Abyss.
• Hobart privately told the World that lifting his family’s Curse had become more complicated and that he needed the Fool’s help, then asked how much the Fool’s powers had recovered.