Chapter Summaries

Iver recovered enough to return to school, spent time with Isabel, and learned that Master Agnes might want to see him. After class, Dean Meg unexpectedly summoned Iver, leaving him worried about which of his misdeeds she had discovered.

• Sherlock told Iver that he had investigated Eagle Cape Village and planned to leave with him after Iver's Final Exam.
• Iver used the Sacrificial Fire Method to restore his condition and returned to school, where Isabel said Master Agnes might visit that evening.
• Iver told Isabel he could play a little guitar, then walked with her around the lake and encouraged her to grow stronger.
• After their classes, Dean Meg appeared outside Iver's classroom and ordered him to come with her.
• Iver wondered whether Dean Meg had learned that he had teased Isabel.

Iver explained to Meg why he would not rush into a relationship with Isabel, then offered Meg a way to extend her life despite her inability to benefit from Balance or the Twilight Path. The chapter ended as he named the Reversing to Youth Ritual.

• Meg took Iver to his residence, shared wine with him and Lily, and asked when he and Isabel planned to marry.
• Iver denied having had a girlfriend and asked Meg to stop using Word of Power on him.
• Lily explained that she had been Iver’s intimate personal maid since he was thirteen or fourteen, and said she wanted to spare others the pain of being illegitimate children.
• Iver told Meg that Isabel might love the Fox from their shared dream rather than truly know him, and said he would not exploit her confusion or rush into marriage.
• Meg recalled that her husband had died after a dragon ate him, and said she understood Iver’s caution even though she disagreed with him.
• Iver offered to help Meg live longer and named the Reversing to Youth Ritual.

Bone Carver waited for Iver, then entered his dormitory to assassinate him, only to discover that Iver had been moved and he had walked into a trap. Surrounded by Yanis, Meg, and the mysterious Grand Adjudicator, Bone Carver asked how his plan had been exposed.

• Lars Graham, known as Bone Carver, waited for Iver for several nights and postponed his attack while Meg was with him.
• Bone Carver sent his ghost servant into Iver's dormitory, where she confirmed that Iver was asleep and alone.
• Bone Carver entered the bedroom, found it empty, and realized that Yanis had used the Gallery of Paintings to move Iver elsewhere.
• Yanis trapped Bone Carver's ghost servant inside a painting and revealed herself in another painting.
• Meg and the Grand Adjudicator appeared outside and surrounded Bone Carver, who resisted Meg's silencing and asked how they had discovered his plan.

Meg, Shafiya, the Grand Guardian, and Master Yanis confronted Bone Carver after he attacked Iver, but he used a hidden soul backup to escape. Yanis revealed where the surviving statue was, while Isabel waited for Iver in her bedroom.

• The Grand Guardian arrived outside the house, and Shafiya countered Bone Carver’s spell before it could awaken statues across the city.
• Meg confronted Bone Carver over killing her student and demanded that he die, so he pierced his own heart with his bone staff and transformed his body.
• Bone Carver charged Shafiya, but she restrained him with chains while the Grand Guardian blocked his attack and Meg’s Dragon Blood Law Decree made him powerless.
• Shafiya’s chains ground Bone Carver’s body apart, but Yanis revealed that he had escaped through a statue containing a backup of his soul.
• Yanis identified the backup statue as the one Bone Carver had made for Sofia to place in St. Genevieve Chapel.
• Isabel waited eagerly in her bedroom for Iver to arrive.

Meg prepared to advance through the Moulting Ritual after ensuring Lars Graham had been defeated, and planned to fake her death rather than provoke Iris further. Meanwhile, Isabel and Lily guarded Iver while he slept, but Isabel failed to kiss him before he woke and went back to sleep.

• Meg recalled avenging her husband by killing the dragon that had killed him, an ordeal that earned her the Silver Crowned Dragon's blessing and Dragon Blood Law Decree.
• Meg told the Grand Guardian to record Lars Graham as an assassin and prepare a case against the Iris People, while she planned to fake her death and attempt the Moulting Ritual.
• Yanis teleported Iver to Isabel's bed, where Lily and Isabel watched over him as he slept peacefully.
• Isabel touched Iver's face and leaned in to kiss his forehead, but her hair brushed him and startled him awake.
• Iver briefly opened his eyes, mistook Isabel for part of a dream, and went back to sleep while Isabel retreated with Lily and Yanis sighed from the painting.

After waking in Isabel’s room, Iver learned that his home had been damaged and prepared to meet Meg for a ritual. Before leaving, he treated Lily’s exhaustion and offered to do the same for Isabel, who cautiously accepted.

• Lily woke Iver and told him Meg was waiting next door, while his home at 14 Ronin Street was being repaired after the battle.
• Iver apologized to Isabel for taking her bed, and she said she had taken the day off.
• Isabel envied how close Iver and Lily were and wondered whether she could become friends with her own maid.
• Iver examined and healed Lily, then offered to treat Isabel as well.
• Isabel climbed onto the bed and lay beside Iver’s thigh for treatment.

Iver healed Isabel with the Illumination Spell, then brought her to witness Ms. Meg’s Reversing to Youth Ritual. Ms. Meg prepared to begin the dangerous ritual beneath the Silver and Tin Palace as daybreak approached.

• Isabel rested her head on Iver’s lap, and he treated her ailments with the Illumination Spell.
• Iver invited Isabel to witness Ms. Meg’s Reversing to Youth Ritual, and he explained why Queen Sophia could not undergo it.
• Ms. Meg called Iver “little Fox” and joined him and Isabel in the Ritual Room beneath the Silver and Tin Palace.
• Iver warned Ms. Meg that the ritual carried roughly a one-in-three chance of death, but she said she was ready.
• Iver took a deep breath and began the ritual as daybreak neared.

Meg performed a Moulting Ritual to borrow the Ring Angel’s power and resist aging, sacrificing seven treasured objects from her life. The contract took hold and formed a gigantic egg, while Iver began summoning the Butterfly Angel.

• Under Iver’s guidance, Meg prepared the ritual array, wrote her request, and gathered seven meaningful objects to sacrifice.
• Meg placed a pocket watch, her university diploma, her wedding ring, a broken sword, Heber Danai’s collar, a dragon scale, and a necklace from Sofia around the infinity symbol, recounting the turning points they represented.
• Meg cut her wrists as Iver chanted, and the seven objects burned into purple flames that entered the mirror.
• Meg prayed for the power to molt and surpass herself, and the ouroboros transformed into an infinity symbol that branded her tongue with the completed contract.
• The Ring Angel’s power poured through the mirror, turning Meg’s blood into purple liquid that formed a gigantic egg, as Iver began summoning the Butterfly Angel.

Meg completed the Moulting Ritual and emerged as a young half-dragon with a renewed body. She chose the name Ligeia Danai, leaving Iver and the others to welcome her new life.

• Meg endured the painful Moulting Ritual as the Butterfly Angel granted her the right of Moulting Rebirth.
• The Ring Angel’s power combined with Meg’s blood and transformed the Egg of Ascension, marking the ritual’s success.
• Meg emerged as a young half-dragon with silver horns, scales, a tail, and white hair, while Isabel covered her with a coat.
• Meg thanked Iver for saving her and planned to show Sofia her new appearance, despite Isabel urging her to dress and avoid alcohol.
• Meg decided her former identity had died and asked Iver to choose a new name; she accepted Ligeia Danai.

Newly reborn as Ligeia, Meg shared memories of her former life and visited Queen Sophia, who recognized her and welcomed her new identity. Ligeia arranged to keep Meg’s death secret and use her supposed death to draw Avalon’s enemies into action.

• Ligeia told Isabel and Iver stories about her childhood as Meg and said she did not want her former self to be forgotten.
• Ligeia led Isabel and Iver through the palace, where the guards recognized her as the former Grand Arbitrator and let them pass.
• Ligeia visited Queen Sophia, who recognized her as Meg, embraced her, and accepted the name Ligeia.
• Ligeia and Sophia discussed Sophia’s eventual elevation into an apostle and Ligeia’s plan to inherit the Grand Arbitrator position.
• Ligeia asked Sophia to spread the news that Meg had died, while keeping the death secret, to tempt Stibnite and Iris into making a move.
• Iver warned that even if some Stibnite people suspected a trap, others would still act because they hoped Meg was truly dead.

Iver explained that Stibium’s rapid expansion, rebellions, and factional conflict made it vulnerable, so Ligeia planned to let it attack Avalon and fail. Queen Sophia offered Iver the position of Minister of Everything, and he accepted, leaving his studies and advancement ritual as his immediate priorities.

• Iver explained to Isabel that Stibium’s overextended territory, unrest in Narcissus and Black Eagle, and worsening factional struggles made it likely to seek a victorious war to ease domestic tensions.
• Iver and Ligeia explained that Avalon could exploit its naval defenses and Ligeia’s strength to repel an attack, while Iver admitted that war could also help remove disobedient knights and promote younger allies.
• Queen Sophia offered Iver a place in the Round Table Hall or the role of Minister of Everything, and Iver hesitated over how the position might affect his travels.
• Queen Sophia assured Iver that he could travel under secret royal missions, assigned Miss Aleister to serve under him, and said the army would handle Noble Red.
• Iver agreed to become Minister of Everything and planned to focus on his studies and advancement ritual with Isabel for the rest of the week.

Iver and Sherlock discussed Queen Sofia’s plans for Isabel and Avalon’s political crisis as Sofia launched a counteroffensive against Iris and Stibnite. The chapter ended with Sherlock asking Iver who Avalon’s mysterious Minister of Everything was.

• Iver caught Sherlock up on recent events, and Sherlock concluded that Sofia had hidden the curse-bearers’ identities because Avalon could not afford to face two enemies at once.
• Sherlock reasoned that Sofia had prepared Isabel to inherit the throne and urged Avalon to continue its reforms; Iver agreed that Isabel was the heir Sofia trusted.
• Queen Sofia presented Ligeia as Meg’s blood relative and appointed her Grand Arbitrator, then publicly accused Iris of crimes committed by Master Lars Graham and his associates.
• Avalon pressured Iris while Stibnite scaled back its operations, giving Avalon room to launch Operation Bear Hunt against the Noble Red Society’s strongholds on Glass Island.
• Sofia told the Glass Staircase Newspaper that the Minister of Everything had proposed the operations and kept the minister’s identity confidential; Sherlock asked Iver who the minister was.

Iver and Sherlock discussed whether the new minister might be James Moriarty or Edward before Mycroft arrived and arranged for Sherlock to become a Royal Agent. Mycroft then asked Iver to witness the handling of documents and an inheritance left by Mr. Lars Graham at the Wooden Barrel Club, and Iver agreed to inspect them.

• Sherlock suspected the new minister might be the supposedly dead Professor, while Iver teased him about whether the minister could be Edward or Iver himself.
• Mycroft visited Sherlock and gave him and Iver Drunken Dream Tinctures for their upcoming advancements.
• Mycroft urged Sherlock to accept help with his advancement, and he and Iver agreed that Sherlock could serve as a Royal Agent.
• Mycroft asked Iver to witness the documents and inheritance Mr. Lars Graham had left at the Wooden Barrel Club, and Iver agreed to go.

Iver accompanied Mycroft and Lily to the Wooden Barrel Club, where he discussed his studies and his choice not to compete for top student honors. Mycroft revealed that Iver was likely to receive one of Avalon’s places to study advanced divine arts in the Theocracy next year, then led them into the club to inspect relics.

• Iver told Mycroft he expected to earn at least a Five Petal Flower in every subject, despite having enrolled only a month earlier.
• Iver said he would avoid competing for top student because he wanted other Children to have a chance to change their circumstances.
• Iver and Mycroft spoke in Primordial and Elven, and Mycroft learned that Iver knew enough Elven for further studies.
• Mycroft told Iver that the Theocracy had allotted Avalon nine places for advanced divine arts studies next April, including three for students, and expected Iver to receive one.
• Iver thanked Mycroft for the news, and they arrived at the Wooden Barrel Club to examine relics.

Iver and Mycroft opened Master Lars’s hidden box and discovered equipment, Love Spirit Medicine, a letter, and an occult book. The letter revealed that Bone Carver had ordered Chloe de Sirieix to use the potion on Iver, while Lily became transfixed by the book about the Path of Love.

• Iver entered Master Lars’s red-covered meditation room with Mycroft and had him open the concealed box.
• Iver examined Apothecary in the Shadow, a glove from the Eagle in the Shadow set that could administer stored medicines or poisons through touch.
• Iver identified the bottle as genuine Love Spirit Medicine, which made someone below the Fourth Level fall sincerely in love with the next person they saw for 240 hours.
• Iver read Bone Carver’s letter to Chloe de Sirieix and learned that her mission was to tempt and befriend him, then silence him if she risked exposure.
• Iver saw that Bone Carver had also given Chloe a book that could help her switch to the Path of Love, and noticed that Lily stared at it as if mesmerized.

Iver realized Lily had developed an affinity for the Path of Love and considered letting her pursue it alongside the Path of Adaptation. After studying Three Goddesses' Poisoned Apple, he gave the occult book to Lily, who sensed it was alive and felt she could master its teachings.

• Iver noticed Lily had become absorbed by Three Goddesses' Poisoned Apple and concluded her adaptability to the Path of Love had grown since Minister Drost's death.
• Iver read about witches and the wolf transformation legacy, considering how Lily's advancement could help protect them and might reveal clues about Mr. Dark Cloud.
• Iver rejected prompts to learn Potionology and Spellcasting, deciding against becoming a witch himself.
• Iver gave Lily the book, a potion, and a glove, while keeping a letter for Master Agnes and warning Lily not to let the book interfere with important matters.
• Lily felt the book resonate with her and sensed that she could learn everything inside because it seemed alive.

Iver returned to the Silver and Tin Palace with Lily and stayed there, where he learned about the Court Ritualist Ibn’s past and his connection to the Scaleless Hand. Ibn recognized Iver’s resemblance to his friend Jacob Alexander, leaving Iver with a new link to investigate.

• Iver considered Mycroft’s intelligence and made a note that the vacant Minister of Trade position might suit him better than Minister of Royal Affairs.
• Iver returned to the Silver and Tin Palace with Lily and stayed there at Yulia’s invitation, partly to learn ritual arts from Ibn.
• Ibn told Iver that he had resisted the Good Lords of the Parthian Ancient Kingdom to help the poor and free enslaved people, but his companions had been betrayed and arrested.
• Ibn explained that he had joined Avalon’s Scaleless Hand, been betrayed and imprisoned, then received a pardon from the young Queen and stayed as Court Ritualist.
• Iver asked Ibn about Jacob Alexander, and Ibn said Jacob had been a founder of the Scaleless Hand and his friend.
• Ibn looked closely at Iver and told him that he looked very much like Jacob Alexander.

Iver questioned Ibn about his grandfather Jacob Alexander and the Scaleless Hand, learning why the secret society had kept its work limited and low-profile. Ibn revealed that Aziz Ben Abdul, the Curse Master who killed Iver’s family, had once been his nephew and apprentice and had betrayed him in Anxi.

• Iver told Ibn that Jacob Alexander was his grandfather and that his family had been cursed to death.
• Ibn identified Jacob’s supposed typhoid as the Typhoid Curse and said the killer had likely studied Spellcasting under Jacob.
• Ibn explained that the Scaleless Hand stayed secret and limited its commissions to avoid becoming a source of dependence for people.
• Ibn said he had lost contact with Jacob and the Scaleless Hand after returning to find their bases abandoned and their communications severed.
• Iver told Ibn that Aziz Ben Abdul had cursed his family, and Ibn recognized Aziz as his former nephew and apprentice who had betrayed him in Anxi.

As the Promotion Ritual approached, Iver sharpened his cursecraft and prepared to promote alongside Isabel and Sherlock, while Yulia’s team was bolstered by Lily and Ligeia. During the ritual, Iver entered the Dream Realm and met Merlin, who introduced himself as the examiner.

• Iver recorded his growing list of questions about Aziz, his foster father, Jacob, Noble Red, and the Sacred Entity, then learned cursecraft from Ibn.
• Iver raised his skills by spending experience and training, while Lily rapidly advanced as a Witch and mastered a transformation spell.
• Iver, Isabel, and Sherlock prepared for their Promotion Rituals as Lily, Yulia, and Ligeia began theirs; Sherlock resolved to prioritize Iver’s success.
• Iver invoked the Pillar Gods, chose the Path of the Candle Keeper, and entered the Dream Realm.
• Iver found the Flame Butterfly with him but no statue or other candidate, then met a young man who identified himself as Merlin.

During his Promotion Ritual, Iver spoke with Merlin about the altered Shadow of Avalon Ritual and the danger that the Ring Angel might use it to summon the Shadow Angel. Merlin hinted that the Ring Angel was involved and agreed to help deal with the escaped Giant Prince Wolfram before he vanished as a stone statue.

• Merlin pulled Iver into the Dream Realm before the other Promotion Ritual participants could arrive and explained that it was a safe place to talk.
• Iver warned Merlin that the Shadow of Avalon Ritual was one sacrifice short of completion and now pointed toward the Shadow Angel instead of resurrecting Lancelot I.
• Merlin doubted Vivian could have altered the ritual to work as Iver described without the Ring Angel’s involvement, but avoided stating that outright.
• Iver reminded Merlin that Wolfram had escaped from the prison Merlin designed, and Merlin agreed to help without explaining how.
• Merlin vanished and reappeared as a huge stone sculpture of an old, white-haired man as a newcomer arrived beside Iver.