Chapter Summaries

Nathan practiced controlling fire until Edward interrupted him, then learned that a shipment of books had arrived despite Church pressure forcing their supplier to smuggle them at a higher price. Mariana examined a sample of Records of Injustices and learned from Edward that the books were printed by machine.

• Nathan practiced making a candle flame sway with his gaze, but Edward's arrival interrupted his concentration and extinguished it.
• Edward told Nathan and Mariana that the books had arrived, though the supplier had raised the price because the local Church had pressured the lord to ban them.
• Mariana approved paying the higher price and accepted a sample copy of Records of Injustices from Edward.
• Edward explained that Sanel had seen the books being produced by a machine in Northwest Bay and identified the process as printing.

Mariana, Nathan, and Edward discussed the new printing method as the Church’s book bans and harsh policies fueled rebellion across Horn Bay. The chapter ended with Messiah’s riot driving loyal Church clergy out of the city.

• Edward explained how printing produced books quickly and accurately, while Nathan dismissed the invention and Mariana defended its usefulness.
• Mariana told Edward to oversee the distribution of books to coastal towns, then asked Nathan about the Church’s situation.
• At a meeting, Archbishop Elvis learned that fifteen of the twenty Coastal States had openly turned against the Horn Bay Church and that most had withheld their tithes.
• Elvis’s ban on Records of Injustices led to mass book burnings, executions, arrests, and growing resentment among the people of Horn Bay.
• In Messiah, a rotten egg thrown at a clergyman sparked a riot in which crowds attacked churches and Church knights shed blood.
• The people of Messiah released clergy who pledged loyalty to their city and beat and expelled those who remained loyal to the Horn Bay Church.

After the July 19th Massacre, coastal countries and clergy broke with the Horn Bay Church, forming the New Sect and challenging the Church’s authority. As Elvis weighed whether to attack Eton, Holy See envoys Libert and Anthony arrived in Collins to seek peace and prevent war.

• The Church’s Guardian Army crushed Messiah’s defenders, captured the city, and executed many rebels, including Sir Richardson, on July 19th.
• Sir Richardson became a symbol for dissidents, while the Eton Duchy and other coastal countries restricted Church activity and the New Sect split from the Old Sect under Angelo.
• Elvis struggled to decide whether to send troops against Eton as conflict with the coastal countries intensified.
• Segovia II urged Elvis to use force against the coastal heretics, but Libert called for calm and said he and Anthony would travel to the coastal countries to preserve peace.

King Collins rejected Libert’s call for peace as Archbishop Elvis reluctantly approved one final diplomatic mission before threatening the coastal nations with the Lord of Light’s wrath. Libert explained that he would go to distinguish the Holy See from the Horn Bay Church and preserve a channel for future negotiations.

• King Collins argued that the coastal nations had pushed Horn Bay to the brink through repeated provocations.
• Libert reflected that the Horn Bay Church’s Witch Hunt had alienated merchants, nobles, and the people, while the Pope had wanted to keep witchcraft investigations discreet and controlled.
• Elvis agreed to let Libert make one final effort for peace, then warned that the coastal nations would face divine wrath if they did not return beneath the Lord of Light.
• Segovia II and Elvis left the meeting, followed by Libert and the other attendees.
• Anthony asked Libert why he would make a trip he expected to fail, and Libert said he needed to separate the Holy See’s position from the Horn Bay Church’s and keep negotiations possible if war came.

Libert explained to Anthony that Horn Bay’s war arose from deep-rooted conflicts, though he still believed people retained a final shred of reason. In Niceburg, councilors debated Libert’s mission as anti-Church sentiment and the New Sect spread, while Anthony privately revealed that he wanted to destroy Libert’s faith in reason.

• Libert told Anthony that Elvis’s appointment could not have prevented Horn Bay’s conflicts from erupting into war, but said he had intervened because he believed everyone retained a last shred of reason.
• After parting from Libert, Anthony muttered that he had followed him to Horn Bay to shatter that belief.
• Chairman Marcus and the councilors discussed Libert’s sincerity, while Foster doubted his visit could help unless the Holy See ordered the Horn Bay Church to stop its actions.
• Horace urged the council to prepare for war, and the councilors recognized that Records of Injustices had fueled public opposition by distinguishing Lord of Light from the Holy See and questioning the Church’s authority.
• Former Church members formed the New Sect, while the council failed to identify the author of Records of Injustices and copies continued spreading despite its ban in Arda.

Chairman Marcus and the Council of Review prepared for a possible war with the Horn Bay Church, reviewing the alliance’s extensive arms and plans for its fleet. At a border checkpoint, a militiaman spotted an unexpected caravan approaching from the inland trade route.

• Chairman Marcus agreed to welcome Libeite and asked Joe Foster to report on the alliance’s armaments.
• Foster listed the alliance’s armor, weapons, siege equipment, draft animals, and preparations to recruit mercenaries, crediting the Northwest Bay’s supplies.
• Horace warned the council to watch for traitors such as Simmons, while Chairman Marcus said the alliance would ready warships to protect its ports and shipping.
• A sick militiaman at a border checkpoint saw a caravan approaching along the usually deserted road toward the Xilan Duchy and wondered if the Inland Country was invading.

Church envoy Libert was assassinated at a border checkpoint while preparing for negotiations with the Horn Bay Alliance. Priest Anthony discovered the killing, and the chapter ended with his anguished roar alerting the knights that something had gone terribly wrong.

• A militiaman released a pigeon to notify the authorities that Church envoys had reached the checkpoint.
• A Church knight threatened the militiaman for making the envoys wait, but Libert ordered him to stop and entered the guard hut with Anthony.
• Anthony left Libert alone in the hut, and an attacker strangled and stabbed Libert until he died.
• Anthony warned the knights to behave politely when the Alliance's officials arrived, while the militiaman returned to the hut with water.
• A roar of grief and anger came from the hut, and the knights realized that something serious had happened.

Marquis Joe Foster learned that the Holy See’s envoy, Libert, had been assassinated and faced the Church’s accusation that the Horn Bay Alliance was responsible. With war now imminent, Foster rode back to alert the Council, unsure who had arranged the killing.

• Marquis Joe Foster arrived at the border outpost and found dead militiamen, while a Church knight accused the Alliance of provoking the Church.
• The knight claimed that Alliance assassins had murdered Libert at the house where he had rested and said the envoy’s body had been taken to Collins.
• Foster denied that the Alliance had any reason to kill Libert, but the knight dismissed his defense and rode away with the other knights.
• Foster considered the Church, Alliance hardliners, and the Inland Countries as possible culprits and hurried back to notify the Council.

Gerd Rodney toured a Weaving Factory with Paul and discussed the Flying Shuttle Loom, its technology, and the machinist Gaye Berns. Gerd revealed that his younger brother August was gifted at mechanical design and had improved the Royal Capital’s guillotine blades.

• Gerd watched the Flying Shuttle Loom and discussed its efficiency and technology upgrades with Paul.
• Paul identified Gaye Berns as the machinist who helped complete the loom, and Gerd recalled Berns had been driven from Crystal Radiance for refusing to make nobles’ toys and teaching poor children.
• Gerd explained that his younger brother August was interested in machines and had been visiting the Mechanical Factory and Agricultural Machinery Factory.
• Gerd told Paul that August had redesigned guillotine blades with a slanted triangular edge to prevent them from developing rolled edges.

After learning that the Horn Bay War had begun, Paul worried that instability would threaten Northwest Bay's trade with the East. In Niceburg, Quiller Foster watched a war rally, while Joe Foster warned Chairman Marcus that Horn Bay’s prosperity might disappear for good.

• A guard delivered a letter to Paul, who learned that war had begun in Horn Bay and left to discuss a response with his officials.
• The Horn Bay Alliance mobilized its citizen soldiers and equipped its forces with weapons and armor purchased from Northwest Bay.
• Quiller Foster attended Niceburg’s war rally as Councilor Horace urged citizens to fight the Church and its inland allies.
• Chairman Marcus privately asked Joe Foster whether the Alliance would win the war.
• Joe Foster pointed to Niceburg’s lights and said that all the lights of Horn Bay were going out.

Lister tried to flee Yebu after hearing that Collins's cavalry was approaching, but the city descended into chaos and he became trapped in a carriage with its driver and family. After they escaped the city, they encountered two armies forming up for battle, leaving Lister watching from a nearby copse.

• A merchant rushed into the tavern and warned that Collins's cavalry was approaching Yebu, prompting Lister to decide to flee.
• Lister hired a carriage to Playa, but the driver raised the fare and detoured home to collect his wife and children as panic spread through Yebu.
• Lister and the others finally left the city after more than an hour, but their slow carriage soon encountered two armies on the plain.
• Lister and the driver hid in a copse and watched the armies form spear lines and advance toward each other.

Lister watched Church cavalry shatter Yebu's army as smoke rose over Yebu City, then followed the coachman back to the carriage after hearing his wife scream. The coachman begged three soldiers who had surrounded his wife and child to spare them.

• The Church cavalry repeatedly charged Yebu's formation, inflicting casualties and throwing its ranks into disarray.
• The cavalry made a final charge, and Yebu's army collapsed as soldiers fled or surrendered.
• Lister and the coachman saw columns of smoke rising over Yebu City, and Lister suggested hiding until the victorious troops left.
• The coachman's wife screamed, and the coachman and Lister ran to the carriage to find three soldiers surrounding her and the child.
• The coachman fell to his knees and begged the soldiers to let his family go.

Lister used his claim to be an envoy of Lord Paul Greiman to escape a confrontation with three deserters from Yebu, then received an unexpected offer to hire them as guards. The chapter ends by describing how the Church army’s surprise invasion plunged the coastal nations into a dangerous war.

• Lister claimed to be Lord Paul Greiman’s envoy and showed Raja a document bearing the Greiman family crest.
• Raja recognized the crest and, after recalling that Greiman’s warriors had rescued the Eton Grand Duke’s sister-in-law, believed Lister’s claim.
• Raja explained that he and his two companions had deserted after Yebu’s lord abandoned the city and its soldiers.
• Lister told Raja that his guards had died protecting him and vowed to seek justice from the earl.
• Raja offered to have the three deserters serve as Lister’s guards.
• The Guardian Army’s surprise invasion of northern coastal nations caught them unprepared and left the war’s outcome uncertain.

As war threatened trade in Horn Bay, Paul asked his council how to protect Arda’s overseas assets. Schroeder rejected an immediate troop deployment but proposed preparations for a future foothold, then suggested hiring mercenaries to guard the properties.

• Paul asked the council for ways to reduce the risks war in Horn Bay posed to Northwest Bay trade.
• Ford recalled that Paul had previously rejected merchants’ requests to buy land in Horn Bay and urged the council to establish an armed force there to protect its properties.
• Paul asked Schroeder whether Arda could send a battalion, but Schroeder explained that supply, bases, and unfamiliar diseases made deploying troops too dangerous.
• Schroeder proposed sending agents and doctors to survey Horn Bay and negotiating with its rulers for land, estimating that preparations could enable a deployment in six months.
• Hansel warned that sending Arda’s army into a war the kingdom was not involved in would put the king in a difficult position.
• Schroeder suggested hiring mercenaries to deter criminals and protect Arda’s overseas assets.

Doug labored as a prisoner in Northwest Bay’s coal mines, while Paul and Schroeder discussed turning captured Cape Bay mercenaries into a force to pursue Northwest Bay’s interests there. Schroeder proposed branding the mercenaries as slaves to prevent them from betraying Paul, and Laddie explained how Cape Bay customs enforced a master’s claim.

• Doug shoveled coal in the labor camp and remembered his former life as a mercenary captain, regretting that he had accepted Amerson’s employment.
• Schroeder proposed hiring Cape Bay mercenaries because they knew the region and could manage their own supplies.
• Paul recalled the two mercenary companies captured during the Usurper’s War and agreed they could be gathered, rearmed, and sent to Cape Bay.
• Paul worried that the mercenaries might become uncontrollable, so Schroeder suggested branding them as slaves.
• Laddie explained that Cape Bay customs allowed anyone to capture a branded slave who betrayed their master and return them for punishment.

Doug and Patton, former mercenaries imprisoned in the Reform Camp after the Usurper's War, secretly shared alcohol bought with saved coal. They complained about the Aldo People’s strict rules as they returned to the dormitory.

• After work, Doug washed the coal dust from himself and his clothes at the camp stream.
• Patton secretly gave Doug a ceramic bottle of liquor and said the seller had doubled the price.
• Doug savored ten small sips, then handed the remaining liquor to Patton, who drank it and rinsed the bottle with water.
• Doug and Patton cursed the Aldo People and Greiman, recalling the camp’s food, strict housekeeping rules, and punishments as they walked to the dormitory.

Doug and the other Cape Bay mercenaries lived as prisoners in the Reform Camp until the Arda authorities summoned him and Ferguson. Their rivalry resurfaced when Ferguson argued that his Rhinos were more useful than Doug’s Black Hounds, leaving Doug hopeful that they might be given an important role—and perhaps a chance to escape.

• Doug and Patton ate with the other prisoners, who explained that guards had taken Ferguson and his men away.
• A guard ordered the prisoners to assemble, and an Arda soldier called Ribeiro Doug out of formation.
• The soldier escorted Doug to the administrative office, where he found Ferguson waiting with Lord Erwin.
• Ferguson urged Lord Erwin to choose the Rhinos over the Black Hounds, and Doug angrily defended his mercenary group.
• Doug inferred from Ferguson’s desperation that the Aldo People had a significant use for the mercenaries, and wondered whether it offered hope of escape.

Major Jerimin Erwin explained that Northwest Bay wanted to send a force to Horn Bay to protect its investments amid the war, and Doug and Ferguson competed for the chance to lead it. Erwin said they would have to swear loyalty to Lord Paul Greiman by accepting his mark burned onto their bodies, leaving both mercenary leaders stunned.

• Major Jerimin Erwin introduced himself to Doug and told Ferguson to listen as he explained why they had been summoned.
• Erwin described the war between the Horn Bay Alliance and the Horn Bay Church’s Inland Countries, then asked which side the men would serve; Ferguson and Doug said they fought for money.
• Erwin explained that Lord Paul Greiman wanted a force in Horn Bay to protect Northwest Bay’s property and that the Staff Department was seeking candidates.
• Doug and Ferguson both volunteered to serve Lord Greiman and competed to declare their loyalty.
• Erwin rejected spoken oaths and contracts, insisting that they accept Lord Greiman’s mark burned onto their bodies; Doug and Ferguson hesitated.

Major Erwin offered Bero Doug, Ferguson, and their mercenaries a choice between accepting a brand and returning to Cape Bay as Greiman Family mercenaries or remaining in the Reform Camp in hope of a pardon. Doug decided to accept the brand, but he found Ferguson already in Erwin’s office when he came to give his answer.

• Major Erwin explained the two choices and gave Doug and Ferguson until the next day to decide.
• Ferguson and Doug claimed they would not accept a slave brand, then Doug told his companions about the choices and saw that most wanted to return to Cape Bay.
• Doug slipped away from the gathered mercenaries and decided to return to Cape Bay despite the humiliation of the brand.
• Doug entered Major Erwin’s office to accept the brand and found Ferguson already there.

Ferguson and Doug received Greiman family brands as part of the mercenaries’ release from the Reform Camp. Paul and Schroeder arranged to send the mercenaries back to Horn Bay with weapons, supplies, instructors, and military observers.

• Ferguson endured the branding, receiving a dragon-head mark and the Greiman surname abbreviation on his upper arm.
• Doug chose to be branded on his arm and endured the pain while Ferguson taunted him.
• Ferguson and Doug saw the Black Hound and Rhino mercenaries waiting in line to receive their brands.
• Schroeder reported that the mercenary prisoners had passed Erwin’s fitness test and could return to Horn Bay.
• Paul approved sending the mercenaries with armor, weapons, money, and Education Department instructors to supervise them.
• Schroeder proposed sending Military Academy officers and cadets to observe the war, and Paul ordered him to arrange it.