Recaps

Shade sought Luvia’s help finding Miss Danist, whose disappearance resisted the first divination. The later readings suggested she was lost in time and pointed Shade toward an inn, an owl, and a snowy forest.

• Shade learned that Vesta City’s Moon Dance Festival had been a tradition since the Creekwood Town Era.
• Luvia’s first divination with King's Egg failed to reveal a way to find Miss Danist.
• Luvia used King's Egg again and learned that Miss Danist did not exist in the present, but Shade could bring her back safely at any time.
• Shade suspected Miss Danist had fallen into a time-related trouble and asked Luvia to use Moment to find clues.
• Luvia’s divination revealed a large inn with a golden accordion sign and a plump owl, which she identified as a messenger leading to Miss Danist.
• Luvia performed a water divination and saw a forest in the snow.

Shade visited Sianode and agreed to help her recover scattered ancient elven arrows in exchange for information about Vesta Woodland. He then traveled to Vesta City and headed for the Accordion Inn, continuing his search for his missing teacher.

• Shade followed a silver-blue flower to Sianode’s Tree House and returned the Crystal Light stone slab.
• Shade asked Sianode about Vesta City and told her he was searching for his powerful missing teacher.
• Sianode offered to share information about Vesta Woodland if Shade collected scattered ancient elven arrows, and Shade accepted her commission.
• Shade traveled to Vesta City and hired a carriage to take him to the Accordion Inn.
• Shade observed Vesta City’s lush streets, numerous music venues, and the Golden Music Hall at its center.

Shade arrived in Vesta City and searched the Accordion Hotel for clues to Miss Danist’s whereabouts. He learned that the inn’s owner, Bennett, was linked to a haunting rumor and to a debt owed to the Mermaid of Moon Bay.

• Shade passed Creekwood Town Conservatory of Music and admired Golden Music Hall on his way to the Accordion Hotel.
• An attendant told Shade the Accordion Hotel was fully booked, so Shade transformed into a Silver Cat and searched its upper floors for clues.
• Finding nothing unusual, Shade returned in human form, ordered lunch, and tipped an attendant to buy local newspapers.
• Shade questioned the attendant about reports of hauntings, and the attendant revealed that strange sounds had come from a broom closet near Rooms 317 and 318.
• Shade recognized Bennett as the man who owed a debt to the Mermaid of Moon Bay, but decided to prioritize finding Miss Danist.

Shade investigated a broom closet cabinet in Vesta City and discovered that it connected unpredictably to the past. After briefly arriving in a tree hollow in 1698 and returning to 1854, he concluded that the cabinet might be linked to Miss Danist’s disappearance, but its workings remained unknown.

• Shade found a peddler’s apple-selling cry coming from the empty lower compartment of the cabinet and noticed it lacked cobwebs.
• Shade summoned Grace and Helen, explained the risk, and had them watch while he climbed inside the cabinet.
• As Grace spoke about ancient temple ruins, her voice faded and Shade found himself in a tree hollow in 1698.
• Shade returned to 1854 after about half a minute, and Grace and Helen confirmed that he had vanished from the cabinet.
• Shade tried the cabinet again for two hours but experienced nothing, then concluded that it connected unpredictably to different points in the past.
• Grace and Helen agreed that they should not move the cabinet until they understood its time-travel effect.

Shade used the cabinet and the Spacetime Spirit Rune to open a doorway through time, but the burned man who emerged attacked him and escaped. The man vanished through the ceiling after leaving his bound leg behind, and Shade was left without answers about his identity or what lay beyond the door.

• A voice from the cabinet mentioned the Accordion Hotel, Room 321, prompting Shade to find a notebook documenting seven disappearances at the hotel.
• Shade and the sisters connected three dates in the notebook to the cabinet’s time links and suspected the voice came from someone in 1763.
• Shade tested the Youthful Immortality Leaf and Time Keys, then projected his Spacetime Spirit Rune onto the cabinet and made the Black Time Key turn.
• Shade opened the cabinet to a sunlit doorway, and a severely burned man wearing an Emerald Ring crawled out and cast Time Stop.
• The man attacked Shade, used time reversal to escape the Great Sin Chains, then fled through the ceiling after abandoning his bound right leg.

Shade and the sisters opened a distorted passage through time after killing a time-wielding Ring Arcanist, and Shade traveled alone to the winter of 1763 to search for the missing woman. He arrived in an unfamiliar estate and discovered that his Witch badge reacted to an owl on the study windowsill.

• A burned-faced Ring Arcanist attacked Shade in frozen time, but Shade killed him with a strike of bloody light while Grace and Helen watched from a rooftop.
• Grace and Helen explained that they had recovered from the time stop and killed the stranger, and Shade stored the corpse before reopening the cabinet with a normal Time Key.
• The cabinet revealed three possible dates and warned that the passage would collapse after two uses; Shade chose the winter of 1763 and exchanged blood with Grace and Helen as a safeguard.
• Shade stepped through the cabinet and arrived in a noble study on a snowy afternoon in 1763, separated from Grace and Helen.
• Shade felt his Witch badge grow hot and realized that the plump owl on the windowsill was the only other living creature in the room.

Shade traveled through time to find Miss Danist, who had been stranded in the past in her eighteen-year-old body, and brought her back to 1854. He returned with Danist and her owl, while Grace and Helen reminded him of the price he owed them.

• Shade followed Miss Danist's owl through the snowy town and forest, then found Danist preparing a ritual in a clearing.
• Danist explained that she had arrived in the past a month earlier, returned to age eighteen, and lost the strength she had gained later in life.
• Shade and Danist returned to the manor study and used the Time Key to travel back through the cabinet passage.
• Shade pulled Danist into the present as the passage began to reject her, and naming the date and time completed her return to 1854.
• Grace and Helen appeared, reminded Shade of his agreement to visit Miburg and date them, then vanished.
• Danist asked what Shade had paid to bring her back, and he told her it did not matter as long as she was safe.

Shade rescued Miss Danist from the past and brought her back to Vesta City, where he treated her and examined her Time Curse. Miss Danist and Flora Winslet suspected a larger problem in the Vesta Woodland region, while Shade planned to return the next morning to discuss a solution.

• Miss Danist agreed to tell Shade about another time traveler the next day, and Shade helped her leave the broom closet for her room in the inn.
• Shade gave Miss Danist and her owl Holy Water No. 2 and examined Miss Danist, finding that a mild Time Curse had fixed her body and soul at age eighteen.
• Shade prepared dinner for Miss Danist, left her medicine, and promised to return the next morning with clothes and to discuss her curse.
• After Shade left, the owl revealed herself as Flora Winslet and teased Miss Danist about her feelings toward Shade.
• Miss Danist and Flora discussed their return and suspected that a major problem in the Vesta Woodland region had caused more than an accidental trip through time.

Flora Winslet and Miss Danist discussed their transformations by the Time Curse and planned to seek help from Shade. After Shade identified Flora as the witch he had found, Galina recognized the famous artist and writer, and Shade waited for Luvia and Iluna to arrive so he could explain what had happened.

• Flora Winslet told Miss Danist that the curse had turned her into an owl, while Miss Danist remained eternally eighteen.
• Flora Winslet and Miss Danist decided to contact their respective groups discreetly and see what Shade could do about the curse and the trouble in Vesta City.
• Galina arrived at Shade's home and found him measuring a damaged cabinet with Little Mia inside.
• Shade asked Galina which Witch Council member was in Vesta City, then described the owl he had encountered.
• Galina deduced that the missing witch was Flora, and Shade realized he knew her as the artist and writer Flora Winslet.

Shade discussed Flora Winslet’s artistic career, Death Seat, and transformation magic with Galina, then told Galina, Iluna, and Luvia about the time-travel incident at the Accordion Hotel. He planned to contain the cabinet and meet Flora openly, while Iluna doubted their encounter would be straightforward.

• Galina explained that Flora Winslet, the Eighth Seat and Great Witch of Death, used art to preserve her Soul’s Warmth and was a master of transformation.
• Shade asked whether Flora could transform into a Dragon, and Galina said she had been studying the Dragon Transformation Spell.
• Shade recounted how a time-linked cabinet at the Accordion Hotel had trapped Miss Danist and a witch in the past, and he planned to contain the cabinet until the eighth Chosen One matter was settled.
• Shade said he intended to tell Flora his identity, but Iluna predicted that he and the witch would not simply meet and peacefully coexist.
• Iluna told Shade that Emilia’s weight-loss plan with Little Liana was going well and that Emilia had written to Angelina about gaining two more Brothers.

Shade visited Miss Danist in Vesta City and learned how she had become trapped in 1763 after opening a cabinet in the inn. Her account linked the time passage to the Bennett family and suggested she had been unable to leave the Woodland without losing her chance to return to 1854.

• Luvia's divination with the Thunder God's Wrath coin failed to reveal a way to remove the Time Curse, and she supported Shade's plan to tell Miss Flora Winslet his identity.
• Shade traveled to Vesta City and found Miss Danist recovering in her room while the owl watched him.
• Miss Danist told Shade she had contacted the Academy, concealed her predicament from most of its members, and arranged a month's leave to investigate the curse in Vesta City.
• Miss Danist explained that opening a cabinet in the inn's broom closet had sent her to Baron Bennett's manor in 1763, where Shade later found her.
• Miss Danist said she had spent thirty-seven days exploring the snowbound town and Woodland, but could not contact the Academy or leave the area because she feared she would never return to 1854.

Shade and Miss Danist investigated her time curse and tested whether an ancient artifact could weaken it, while discussing other time travelers in Creekwood Town. The chapter ended with the Owl transforming into Flora Winslet, who introduced herself to Shade.

• Miss Danist explained that she had left clues about her disappearance and found a newspaper from 1852 during her time in the past.
• Shade and Miss Danist suspected Creekwood Town held other time travelers and discussed finding them to learn how to lift her Time Curse.
• Shade gave Miss Danist a jar containing two umbilical cords, and it temporarily changed her Destiny Ring from seven rings to the Twelfth Ring of Fate.
• Miss Danist's curse worsened after the transformation, and Shade healed her with Sunlight Healing.
• Miss Danist showed Shade the half-sheet of the Creekwood Town Morning Post from 1852 and told him about the winter she spent in the past.
• The Owl transformed into Flora Winslet, who appeared before Shade and greeted him.

Shade met Flora Winslet, the Eighth seat of the Witch Council, who recognized him and discovered his relationship with Galina. Flora asked him to help lift the Time Curse and find her missing uncle, offering a rare Rhodes Cards series as payment.

• Flora Winslet introduced herself as the Great Witch of Death and recognized Shade as Sir Hamilton despite his disguise.
• Flora privately confronted Shade about Galina, and Shade admitted that he was Galina's lover.
• Flora asked Shade to help find a way to lift the Time Curse, promising to keep his secrets whether he agreed or not.
• Flora revealed that she had come to Creekwood Town to find her uncle, whose support could help her aunt inherit the Winslet Family enterprise.
• Flora offered Shade a rare Race Legend Rhodes Cards series in exchange for his help.

Shade agreed to help Miss Winslet find her missing uncle in exchange for seeing a card she owned, then coordinated an investigation into time-related mysteries with her and Miss Danist. After his study group warned him against using the Time Tree Hole, Priest Augustus revealed that he had prepared a potion for Shade.

• Miss Winslet told Shade that her apprentice was safeguarding the card and would arrive next week, and Shade agreed to help find her missing uncle.
• Miss Winslet explained how her curse weakened her transformations, and she, Miss Danist, and Shade divided their investigations into the Hermits of the Forest, ancient ruins, and the Bennett Family.
• Shade attended the group study meeting and told Luvia, Dorothy, Priest Augustus, and Doctor Schneider about the magical cabinet and the Time Tree Hole.
• Priest Augustus and Doctor Schneider warned Shade that the Time Tree Hole was dangerous and urged him not to use it.
• Priest Augustus left with Shade after the meeting and showed him a sealed tube containing a golden potion he had prepared.

Shade received an Enlightenment Potion from the Old Priest, then resumed Night Lesson with Dorothy and Leisha by studying the fairy tale Crystal Light. The next morning, Galina discussed Flora Winslet with Shade, and Dorothy realized that the Witch was the author who had inspired her to become a writer.

• The Old Priest gave Shade an Enlightenment Potion that could purify souls and permanently weaken some curses, including the Time Curse.
• Dorothy and Leisha resumed Night Lesson with Shade, and Shade chose to study Crystal Light, whose high-ring Thaumaturgy Crystal Touch could transform living beings into nearly eternal crystal.
• Dorothy and Leisha planned to learn Crystal Touch together, while Dorothy teased Shade about what he might do if one of them became a crystal statue.
• Galina questioned Shade about his conversation with Flora Winslet and warned him that Flora might use her offer of help to learn about his relationships with Witches.
• Galina proposed gathering the Witches to confront Flora after their other business was settled, and Dorothy recognized Flora as the writer whose work had inspired her career.

Shade used the Time Key and arrived at Black Sand Dock in the summer of 2025, where Father of Infinite Tree tasked him with waiting for someone about to depart. He reached a bonfire by the dock and found a middle-aged man beside it, while a boatman waited on a moored boat.

• Dorothy praised Flora Winslet’s literary success and said she hoped to meet her in person.
• Shade recalled that Helen and Grace had said the Time Curse required atonement, though its victims had to discover the answer themselves.
• Shade entered the Time Corridor and received a trial to wait with mortals for someone about to depart, with a Miracle Ling Rune - Tree as the reward.
• Shade crossed Black Sand Dock’s happiness-draining beach, resisting its oppressive emotions by recalling happy memories.
• Shade reached the dock and saw a middle-aged man beside a bonfire and a tall boatman holding an oar.

Shade arrived at Black Sand Dock, where Frank Nelson waited for his wife and the Ferryman offered to carry travelers to any time and place for a fare. After learning about the dock, Shade returned to the campfire, where a new figure approached.

• Shade met Frank Nelson beside a silent campfire and learned that they were at Black Sand Dock, where the boat carried people away forever.
• Frank told Shade he was waiting to see his wife, who had left him and their child, and warned that the dock could make visitors want to escape their lives.
• Shade spoke with the God of the Ferryman, who said the boat could take him anywhere he knew, including the riverbank beneath the Underworld Moon, in exchange for a fare based on his destination.
• The Ferryman said mortals who wished to leave forever paid with memory, emotion, and Soul's Warmth.
• Shade returned to Frank and described his happy life, and they turned to watch a staggering figure approaching across the beach.

Shade met Anya Bullock, a Thirteenth Order Witch heading for a ferry that would erase her past and give her soul a new life. After learning that her elder sister became a Fire-Bearing Sister, Anya began telling Shade why she had come to the boundary.

• A witch approached the bonfire, recognized Shade’s unusual nature, and discovered he could summon the First Fire.
• Shade persuaded the witch, Anya Bullock, to sit and talk before boarding the ferry.
• Anya explained that the ferry stripped souls of their memories, emotions, and power before sending them to live again in unborn infants.
• Anya told Shade that she was a candidate councilor of Death Observer and described the dangers of trying to evade death through repeated lives.
• Anya revealed that her elder sister had become a Fire-Bearing Sister, and that she had found one of the scattered sparks of the First Fire for her sister.

Shade learned that Ms. Brooke had come to the shore of death intending to disappear after her sister, a Fire-Holding Sister, was consumed by the First Fire. He persuaded her to seek a meeting with her sister instead, and the chapter ended with them learning what fare the Ferryman required for a trip into True Death.

• Ms. Brooke told Shade that her elder sister had been burned to ashes by the First Fire and that she had come to the shore hoping to disappear and reunite with her.
• Mr. Nelson and Shade challenged Ms. Brooke’s plan, and Shade proposed using the boat to visit True Death and summon her sister with Sister Devlin’s Mithril Blindfold.
• Ms. Brooke agreed to go with Shade and promised to help Mr. Nelson if he needed it; Shade asked her to let him handle the conversation with the Ferryman.
• Shade asked the Ferryman to take them into True Death and back, and the Ferryman agreed in exchange for a regretful tear, 1.1 Keter of sinful guilt, and a trace of Soul’s Warmth.
• The Ferryman gave Shade three cards as containers for the fare, and Shade and Ms. Brooke returned beneath the pier to gather what they needed.

Shade learned how to help a Great Witch of Death withstand the cold of death and gathered useful items on the black beach. He left after arranging to return with what Ms. Brooke needed, then asked the Boatman the price of traveling to meet Chloe Marcus Marcus.

• Shade learned that Ms. Brooke could separate the Soul's Warmth, while he would seek help with the tears of regret and the sin of cowardice.
• Ms. Brooke explained that a Great Witch of Death could be warmed through years of passionate soul resonance with another person, leaving Shade troubled by the method.
• Shade and Ms. Brooke dug up five Relics, three Alchemy Items, and thirteen ordinary objects, and he asked Mr. Nelson to persuade future arrivals to stay.
• Shade returned to the pier and asked the Boatman what payment was needed to travel to a time after year 903 and meet Chloe Marcus Marcus.
• The Boatman demanded a soul frozen by the cold within its heart, and Shade vanished before hearing the Ferryman call him Outlander Ferryman.

After returning from the Fifth Epoch, Shade asked Miss Danist and Flora Winslet about the God of the Ferryman and learned that the mysterious Old God could influence travel across time and space. Miss Danist arranged for Flora to accompany Shade as he began investigating Vesta Woodland, and Flora planned to follow him in cat form.

• Shade returned from his trip to the Fifth Epoch and comforted Little Mia before planning his next tasks.
• Shade visited Miss Danist and Flora Winslet at the Accordion Inn to ask about the God of the Ferryman.
• Miss Danist and Flora explained that the Ferryman was an obscure Old God who took away people wishing to leave the world and was said to have power spanning space and time.
• Shade considered whether the Ferryman's power could help resolve the Time Curse, but judged that approach would be difficult.
• Miss Danist warned Shade against investigating alone and arranged for Flora to accompany him.
• Flora decided to follow Shade through the city transformed into a cat.

Shade and Flora Winslet visited Bennett Old House to investigate Shade’s suspicion that Bruce Bennett was still alive. They entered the abandoned estate and found its interior strangely unchanged from the past.

• Flora Winslet transformed into a cat, explained her relic’s disguising powers, and accompanied Shade to Bennett Old House.
• On the carriage ride, Flora told Shade about the Bennett family, and Shade suspected Bruce Bennett might not be dead.
• Shade and Flora reached the overgrown estate, where Flora flew over the fence as an owl and Shade slipped through a gap.
• Shade opened the house’s locked door with a touch and found the interior almost exactly as it had been in 1763.

Shade and Miss Winslet discovered a hidden cache of valuable stolen antiques in Bennett Old House, then investigated the study where the witch was nearly pulled back into the past. Shade escaped with her using a difficult space jump, and they paused to recover after learning another rule of time travel.

• Shade used Echoes of the Past to find a concealed chamber in the basement, where he and Miss Winslet discovered valuable antique paintings and objects, including the stolen painting The First Breakfast.
• Miss Winslet recorded the antiques, and Shade used Breath of Time to restore the hidden chamber and conceal their discovery.
• Shade and Miss Winslet searched the study, but Miss Winslet began turning transparent as the past pulled her toward the winter study from a century earlier.
• Shade clasped Miss Winslet's hand and used Laguerre's Leap to escape to the bedroom above the study, overcoming heavy resistance from the distorted space.
• Miss Winslet explained that she could not remain in places where she had spent a long time in the past, and she and Shade rested after drinking diluted Holy Water No. 3.

Shade and Miss Winslet were attacked by two Arcanists investigating the Bennett Family, and Shade fought them with Miss Winslet’s help. After the attackers died, Elf Miss revealed that they belonged to the Tree Hole Association and gave Shade a handmade arrow to compare with the arrows he was seeking.

• Shade and Miss Winslet escaped through a window after two Arcanists attacked them in the manor.
• Shade fought the two speed-enhanced Arcanists, breaking their hands and driving them back with Corrupt Blood Mist and Fireballs.
• One Arcanist used the Sand of Time, but Shade walked through it unharmed, while Miss Winslet’s owl form killed the Sixth Ring Arcanist with an instant-death secret art.
• Shade pursued the surviving Seventh Ring Arcanist into the woods, where he found him dead from a wooden arrow shot by Elf Miss.
• Elf Miss gave Shade a handmade wooden arrow to examine and told him the attackers belonged to the Tree Hole Association.

Shade and Flora Winslet learned that the two Ring Arcanists they defeated belonged to the Tree Hole Association, which was investigating families linked to the Power of Time in Creekwood Town. After one captive soul’s answer caused an explosion, they continued deeper into Vesta Woodland to attempt another Spirit Communication, and Shade agreed to test his Toy Making thaumaturgy on Flora.

• Flora explained that the Tree Hole Association sought Time Tree Holes and that most members acquired time talents through abnormal means, with Rapid Spell as their signature thaumaturgy.
• Shade and Flora covered one Arcanist’s corpse, carried it deeper into the woods, and used Spirit Communication to question the two souls.
• The souls confirmed their Tree Hole Association membership and said the group monitored the Bennett Family while suspecting other long-established local families had meddled with the Power of Time.
• When a soul said the association had one hundred people in Vesta Woodland, its corpse exploded, leaving Shade and Flora unable to ask more questions.
• Flora proposed performing Spirit Communication again in a place suited to undead, and Shade agreed to accompany her.
• During lunch, Flora asked Shade to test Toy Making on her, and Shade summoned his Destiny Ring and touched her through a canvas sheet.