Recaps

Doctor Schneider recovered to Tenth Ring and told Shade about a secret gathering in Vesta City where a Founding card had appeared. At the end of the month, Shade used the Door Pendant to travel to the destroyed era and see Adele, arriving with permission to carry an extra relic.

• Doctor Schneider explained that he had balanced the Demon Hunter's power with the Demon of the Fire's power and would be ready to help Shade in Vesta Woodland the following week.
• Doctor Schneider said he planned to seek the Demon Hunter Encyclopedia and the Path of No Light, preparing for a future battle with the most ancient evil creature.
• Doctor Schneider revealed that a secret gathering in Vesta City had recently hosted a Founding card and that an elderly owner of an Old Bookstore in the northeastern Old Town held an Invitation Letter.
• Shade left Luvia and Dorothy asleep, opened the Door Pendant with the Black Key, and entered the Time Corridor to visit Adele.
• Shade arrived at Saint Derain Square in the past, where he was restricted from leaving the square and could use a Time Key to return if he faced a powerful enemy.

Shade answered Adele’s summons and found her fighting the Curse-Eroded Great Tree, a deadly Doomsday evil. As they tried to escape its underground cemetery, Adele gave Shade new power with a kiss while the tree’s vines pursued them.

• Shade called Adele’s name in the ruined plaza, and her panicked phantom appeared briefly before vanishing.
• Shade answered a summons and arrived at Adele’s side in an underground cemetery as the Curse-Eroded Great Tree attacked them.
• Adele explained that the tree had absorbed Time Curses and become a dangerous evil, while Shade dodged its attacks and his crystallized arm recovered.
• Shade tried to fly out through the pit’s opening, but Adele warned that its chaotic time flow could send them anywhere.
• Shade reached for a bottle of perfume essence, but realized his projection could not project a Relic, and Adele kissed him to grant him power as the vines closed in.

Shade rescued Adele from the Curse-Eroded Great Tree’s time-frozen pit and reunited with her at Saint Derain Square. After sharing what they knew about the tree and Vesta Woodland, Adele explained the destructive power of Luvia Annette’s Words of Sublimation.

• Shade froze time with Mizzle - Crystal Light, broke through the crystal wall, and escaped the pit with Adele.
• Shade returned to Saint Derain Square and summoned Adele by speaking her name, and she passionately embraced him.
• Adele told Shade that she had become trapped while investigating the Curse-Eroded Great Tree and believed it had formed on Kalas Mountain.
• Shade and Adele discussed Helena Carter’s connection to the tree, the events in Vesta Woodland, and the possibility of summoning Adele again with the Philosopher’s Stone and Words of Sublimation.
• Adele explained that The First Silver Moon, Guides the Final Direction used the Yggdrasil Staff to summon the Original Moon and transform the surroundings into a vision of Doomsday.

Shade spent time with Adele in the Past, discussing his Words of Sublimation and the Bennett family before heading to the square for his trial. After Shade violated the rule against leaving Saint Derain Square, he was punished with no powerful enemy this time, but learned that the Curse-Eroded Great Tree would be his next opponent and that he could leave using the Yggdrasil Key.

• Shade and Adele discussed his incomplete understanding of the apocalypse and the possible effects of his Mid-Ring Words of Sublimation.
• Adele recalled that the Bennett family had disappeared after the Vesta City time incident and that no Bennett had become a Chosen One of Time.
• After sharing an intimate moment, Adele urged Shade to go to the square, where he waited but encountered no powerful enemy.
• Shade learned that leaving Saint Derain Square had cost him this trial’s reward and fixed the Curse-Eroded Great Tree as his next powerful enemy.
• Shade discovered he could return at any time by opening a door with the Yggdrasil Key, then returned to Adele and asked her to summon him if she faced danger.

After visiting Adele in the Doomsday Era, Shade returned to the Radiance Messenger and dreamed of talking with Long-Haired Luvia about the coming end of Vesta City. On Saturday morning, Galina reported that patches of Vesta Woodland had turned green and grown enormous trees, prompting Shade and the others to investigate.

• Shade returned to the Radiance Messenger, hid the traces of his visit to Adele, and joined Luvia and Dorothy in bed.
• In a dream at 6 Saint Derain Square, Shade asked Long-Haired Luvia about the black sun and told her he would give nothing up; she promised to help him.
• Galina woke Shade and reported that Vesta Woodland had begun turning green, with hundred-meter-tall trees appearing across the forest.
• Shade, the Hermits of the Forest, and Miss Danist mapped the transformed woodland and found that the changes were denser farther from the city.
• The Church observed that the giant trees seemed likely to become treants, and the elves spread through the forest to investigate them.

Shade visited Berkeley Bookstore in search of an Invitation Letter and agreed to find a woman from an old photograph in exchange for it. He recognized a flower seller from Tuesday as a possible clue and sent Angelina to look for her.

• Shade went to the Old Town bookstore after the Doctor told him it might have an Invitation Letter.
• Berkeley denied having the letter at first, then offered to reveal where it was hidden if Shade brought a woman to the bookstore willingly.
• Berkeley showed Shade a decades-old photograph and said the woman had become a Flower Girl who sold flowers near the Golden Music Hall.
• Shade remembered a flower seller he had met on Tuesday who resembled the girl in the photograph.
• Shade used the Moon Library to recreate the flower seller's image, and Dorothy had Angelina take it into the city to search for her.

Shade investigated the Berkeley Old Bookstore owner’s connection to Jenny Cree and learned that the old man had been waiting for a woman he had met as a boy. The chapter ended with the old man’s story revealed, while Shade still had to determine how the woman and Jenny were linked through time travel.

• Angelina found that Jenny Cree was a thirteen-year-old girl from Old Town with no apparent connection to the Berkeley Old Bookstore.
• Shade visited Jenny at home, then arranged for her to deliver a letter to the old shopkeeper.
• The old shopkeeper broke down after Jenny left, and Shade returned to hear his story.
• The old man explained that he had met a mysterious girl in his youth, loved her, and watched her vanish after saying she had found a way home.
• After receiving an Invitation Letter, the old man chose 1835 and opened a bookstore where his family home had stood, hoping the girl would find him.

Shade learned how an old bookstore owner had traveled through time to reunite with his young love, only to find they had missed each other by decades. After receiving the man's black Invitation Letter, Shade planned to attend a secret gathering that night and investigate who was helping people travel through time.

• The old man told Shade he would leave his bookstore to the girl he had loved, though he intended not to disturb her life.
• The old man explained that a secret gathering had sent him through time and warned him to live quietly, then gave Shade instructions for using the black Invitation Letter on Saturday.
• Shade left the bookstore with the invitation and wondered whether the old man would seek out the girl or die in his shop.
• Shade recounted the story to Miss Danist and Flora, who compared it to Shade's relationship with Teacher and Lady Helena Carter.
• Shade concluded that an existence related to Trees might be sending people through time and decided to attend the secret gathering alone that night.

Shade entered the Time Transfer Station, a frozen moment inside the Accordion Hotel where visitors could travel to the past, and learned that permanent time travel came with strict conditions. He realized the Masked Man’s contract would let him claim any Paradox Worms produced by the journey, and challenged the terms.

• Shade used Enhanced Space Perception to recognize the tavern as the 1st floor of the Accordion Hotel, frozen at 7:42:23 on the 1st day of the Month of Frost's Descent, 1854.
• Shade watched a red-haired scholar sign a contract to travel temporarily to 1800 in search of the lost Charlotte Prophecy Collection.
• A second visitor signed a contract to travel permanently to 1769 and disappeared into darkness through the inn’s front door.
• Shade told the Masked Man he wanted to visit his teacher’s teacher in 1822, then asked what each travel option would cost.
• The Masked Man showed Shade contracts requiring payment or a task for a visit, and imposing restrictions and memory loss for permanent travel.
• Shade recognized that the permanent-travel contract would give the Masked Man ownership of any Paradox Worms produced by time travel and objected to the terms.

Shade visited the Time Transfer Station, learned that Anthony Winslet had traveled away from the present, and arranged to return with Sand of Time for a doorway to Anthony’s time. After leaving the frozen station, Shade and the silver Cat suspected it had been created through an advanced Tree Hole Spell and that Bennett was involved.

• Shade questioned the Masked Man about the station’s time-travel limits and learned that it had stopped offering trips to the future.
• The Masked Man revealed that Anthony Winslet had arrived in spring 1844 and later left the present, but refused to disclose where he went without payment.
• Shade agreed to bring ten standard units of Sand of Time and meet the Masked Man at the station on Sunday night.
• The Masked Man revealed his eight-ring Destiny Ring and the Core Ling Runes Miracle-Tree, Enlightenment-Time, and Enlightenment-Contract, while Shade sensed the station was too dangerous for a fight.
• Shade returned to the alley, and he and the silver Cat suspected the station was an advanced use of the Tree Hole Spell and that Bennett had not created it alone.

After Shade learned that the Time Transfer Station was connected to the Bennett family and Paradox Worms, he sought the Elf Girl’s help understanding the Tree Hole Spell. The chapter ended with the Elf Girl preparing to teach Shade the spell in the snowy woods.

• Wise Great Witch Megan theorized that the Time Transfer Station overlapped in space with the Accordion Hotel and was kept separate from the normal world on Saturday nights.
• Leisha warned Shade that Megan and Audrey Edwardz wanted to confront him about their missing Moon Marks and try Hamster Gnawing Sugar Cane.
• Shade woke on Sunday to Vesta Woodland’s first snow of the winter of 1854 and later visited the Elf Girl with Little Mia.
• The Elf Girl gave Shade a bottle of Paradox Worm Potion and said an eight-ring human was unlikely to create independent time with the Tree Hole Spell.
• Shade and the Elf Girl discussed Bennett’s connection to the Ancient Tree and concluded that past traders had probably given him the antiques found at Bennett Old House.
• The Elf Girl offered to teach Shade the Tree Hole Spell, and they went outside into the snow to begin learning it.

Shade learned the Tree Hole Spell from Emilia, who kissed him in the snow and explained the Chosen One Ritual’s requirements. Their conversation left unresolved whether Emilia would have to become the Tree of Time, while a new crisis arose when the Church asked the group for a Witch’s help.

• Emilia used a ritual in a tree hollow to teach Shade the Tree Hole Spell, and Shade gave her a rose before she kissed him.
• Emilia explained that the Chosen One Ritual required a victor, primordial World Tree materials, enough Power of Time, and a time-distorted site; Shade told her he did not want her to become a tree.
• Shade and Emilia disagreed over whether she might have to accept that responsibility, then returned to the ship with Little Liana for lunch.
• Miss Bell reported that the Church needed a Witch’s help with an unknown problem, and Megan agreed to go after Flora and Shade could not take part.
• Another message arrived from the woods in a letter from Galina.

Shade and Vanessa investigated a strange disaster in Vesta Woodland after the Crescent Moon Secret Society asked the Witch Council to search for an ancient relic. At White Ape Canyon, they found the land dying in a way even Vanessa had never seen, and all Five Gods Churches had joined the effort to confront it.

• Shade and Vanessa learned that the Crescent Moon Secret Society had given Galina a Poem Chapter Fragment and asked the Witch Council to find an ancient leader’s hidden legacy in Vesta Woodland; the Council agreed to help with first purchase rights to any significant mementos.
• Vanessa said Sister Devlin and the Speaker would arrive the next day, while Shade wondered whether Destiny had kept Adele Isabella away from Vesta Woodland in the past.
• Megan sent for Shade after a serious incident occurred, and Vanessa joined him with the Owl and a group of young Sorceresses.
• The group traveled to White Ape Canyon and discovered that the trees and soil were suffering a true death that Vanessa said even the Guardian of the Earth could not reverse.
• Shade’s party reached a Church outpost and learned that all Five Gods Churches, the Academy, and the Hermits of the Forest had sent people to deal with the unprecedented threat inside the canyon.

Shade investigated a black structure in White Ape Canyon and discovered a rift leading to the Present World's Doomsday. Unable to leave as the rift destabilized, he used the Ancient Elven Stability Principle to slow it and decided to conduct his long-postponed Thaumaturgy experiment there.

• Shade entered White Ape Canyon alone after learning that two Ring Arcanists had died and a Twelfth Ring professor had been injured investigating it.
• Shade found a massive black structure with shattered warning-sealed doors and discovered a glowing rift inside.
• Shade realized the rift led to the Present World's Doomsday, not the already-destroyed Past, and concluded that it needed to be sealed.
• When the rift began to grow and destabilize, Shade used the Ancient Elven Stability Principle to slow its Shattering.
• Shade found that ordinary objects decayed near the rift and could not send a letter, then remembered he had postponed his Thaumaturgy experiment and decided to perform it there.

Shade used a Rhodes Card to report the growing rift to the Church, then pinned six Calamity Cards over it to weaken the Doomsday pressure. Iluna Bayes arrived with the Unknown Level Relic Tear Drop of Parting, leaving Shade ready to try mending the rift.

• Shade wrote his hometown's true name and a message on a Rhodes Card, then sent it out to contact the Church and Academy.
• A suit of armor delivered Vanessa's reply, and Shade learned the Church was preparing an Unknown Level Relic to support him.
• When the rift widened and the pressure worsened, Shade signed six Calamity Cards and stuck them over it, easing the strain.
• Shade received a message that the relic was ready, and Iluna Bayes struggled through the Doomsday pressure to reach him.
• Iluna gave Shade the Tear Drop of Parting and explained that he should splash it onto the cracked rift, though neither knew whether it would work.

Shade and Iluna tried to contain the Time Rift, but a flayed monster escaped and the rift was only temporarily bound by enormous roots. Shade pursued the monster through a strange flooded space and returned to find it attacking The Church’s camp with Doomsday water.

• Shade used the Tear Drop of Parting to shrink the rift, but a black Nail-like object pierced his hand and a flayed monster crawled out.
• Iluna went after the monster while Shade used the Ancient Elven Stability Principle; enormous roots then wrapped around the rift and temporarily contained it.
• Shade chased Iluna into the canyon, where a towering wave swept him into a strange expanse of muddy water beneath a dim yellow sky.
• Shade used Return of Time to escape the flooded space and returned to the snowy canyon, where the monster had grown into a giant of black liquid.
• The monster flooded the canyon with muddy yellow water, and Megan and Audrey used their power to divert the torrent away from The Church’s camp.

Shade and the Thirteenth Ring Warlocks fought a liquid monster empowered by the Doomsday Era near the canyon rift. After Blaine Olanode destroyed it with an arrow, Shade reunited with her on the snowy mountaintop.

• Iluna attacked the monster with a Sunlight Gun and Earth Energy Cannon, but its yellow liquid repelled her strikes.
• Gerald Delong, Mr. Clark Carville, and Vanessa joined Shade, who coordinated their attacks as they restrained the monster with machinery, annihilation, and petrification.
• Shade used Moon Fire to burn the monster and force it out of its liquefied state, then tried to attack with Corrupt Blood Mist.
• The monster froze time with its right eye, but Vanessa broke free as Shade's Moonlight Slash was stopped in midair.
• Blaine Olanode fired an Arrow of Night into the monster's eye, creating a black hole that swallowed it and vanished.
• Shade flew to the eastern mountaintop and embraced Blaine Olanode in the snow.

Emilia returned from two years at the Academy in the Fifth Epoch and reunited with Shade, Vanessa, and Miss Olanord. Using Elven Royal Authority, she revealed a temporary Thirteenth Ring form that would let her keep moving forward with Shade as they faced the unresolved Time Rift.

• Shade finally noticed Emilia beside him and greeted her after embracing Miss Olanord.
• Vanessa and Miss Olanord welcomed Emilia, and Shade explained that the Time Rift remained a threat despite Miss Olanord defeating the monster that emerged from it.
• Miss Olanord encouraged Emilia to help address the crisis, while Emilia explained that she had advanced to the eighth ring during her two years at the Academy.
• Emilia placed Elven Royal Authority on her head and transformed her Destiny Ring into a Thirteenth Ring form with the Core Ling Rune Miracle Elf.
• Emilia explained that her Thirteenth Ring form granted resistance and physical qualities but vanished as soon as she cast a spell, then told Shade she could finally keep moving forward with him.

Emilia drew on the ancient Elf Kings’ power to close the Doomsday Rift temporarily, though Shade warned that it could reopen and remained beyond his ability to control. After Emilia returned safely as an Eighth Ring Arcanist with Blaine Olanode, the group began preparing a welcome dinner aboard the ship.

• Vanessa returned to the Church camp with Miss Olanord and Emilia, and Shade explained that the monster may have been a time traveler who had wandered into Doomsday spacetime.
• Shade used the Ancient Elven Stability Principle to protect Emilia and Miss Olanord as they approached the mausoleum and its Rift.
• Emilia summoned the power of the ancient Elf Kings, and she and Shade helped shrink the Rift to a narrow, temporarily controlled opening.
• Shade said the Rift could expand again and that he could neither permanently freeze nor fully control it.
• Vanessa, Megan, and Flora reported that Emilia had returned safely as an Eighth Ring Arcanist, accompanied by Blaine Olanode.
• Luvia learned that Miss Feliana had not returned, while Flora teased Daniste about her feelings for Shade as preparations began for a welcome dinner.

The ladies prepared a banquet aboard the Radiance Messenger to welcome Emilia and the returned Ancient Witch, Blaine Olanode. Angelina saw how much Emilia had changed, while Shade reunited privately with Blaine and offered her a red rose.

• Flora pressed Daniste about her feelings for Shade, and Daniste admitted she had been considering them but feared Shade might not need her.
• Angelina learned Emilia had returned and eagerly awaited her, but initially mistook Blaine Olanode for Emilia when the party entered the banquet hall.
• Shade introduced Blaine Olanode to the assembled guests, and Grandma Qishala arrived to check on Emilia.
• Emilia happily told Angelina about her travels before Grandma Qishala's arrival startled her.
• Shade and Blaine recalled their earlier meetings, and Shade gave her a red rose as they stood together by the porthole.

Shade attended the banquet, then traveled to the Time Transfer Station after delivering Sand of Time to the Masked Man. The Masked Man told him how Anthony Winslet planned to rescue his childhood playmate without changing history, and Shade prepared to travel to 1819.

• Miss Olanord reunited with Shade at the banquet and encouraged him to attend to his business while she spoke with the others.
• Luvia, Flora, and Illustrious Miss saw Shade off as he left the ship and traveled through the snowy city to the Time Transfer Station.
• Shade recognized that the Station’s black doorway was likely created by the Tree Hole Spell and found a woman there planning to kill her grandfather as a child.
• The Masked Man warned that the woman’s attempt would fail and might instead bring her grandparents together, then accepted Shade’s Sand of Time.
• The Masked Man explained that Anthony Winslet wanted to abduct his missing childhood playmate in 1819 and raise the child until their reappearance in 1844, completing a time loop.
• Shade understood that Winslet meant to fulfill history rather than change it, and the Masked Man asked if he was ready to depart for 1819.

Shade wagered with the Masked Man for an earlier visit to the Time Transfer Station, hoping to investigate Bennett’s truth and learn how its time travel worked. He won the first round of Rhodes Cards and could return on Tuesday if he won the match.

• Shade refused to travel to 1819 before preparing and asked the Masked Man to open the station earlier than next Saturday.
• Shade wagered two portions of Sand of Time against an exception, and the Masked Man agreed to play if Shade named an exact date.
• While inspecting the Masked Man’s deck, Shade found Founding, Moon 2, a card given to the Masked Man by his father.
• Shade proposed a best-of-five Rhodes Cards match as they discussed the risks of repeated time travel.
• Shade won the first round after the Masked Man’s Great Steam Age-Night Gas Street Lamps card had no effect on scoring.

Shade and Bennett played another round of cards while Shade questioned him about the Time Transfer Station and time travel. Bennett repeatedly drew Founding and discarded his hand to restart, leaving the deck nearly empty and the round close to ending.

• Shade asked Bennett about the Invitation Letter, people traveling from the past, and whether anyone had taken modern technology into an earlier era; Bennett said that would threaten the Process of Civilization.
• The Masked Man’s Ancient Penalty Cutting card forced Shade to discard Sun 3, but they both later stood at twenty points and tied the round.
• Shade asked whether Bennett had ever traveled through time, and Bennett said he had not because he revered time and saw time travel as a one-way road.
• The Masked Man’s Firearm Double-Barreled Shotgun card adjusted his hand, but he busted while Shade stood at seventeen points and won the round.
• In the final round, the Masked Man repeatedly drew Founding and discarded his hand to redraw it, while Shade reshuffled and changed his own hand several times.
• With only three cards left in the deck, including Founding, the Masked Man could not discard again, and Shade was poised to win if he avoided busting.

Shade won his Rhodes Cards game against the Masked Man, who had repeatedly used the Time Loop, and received a special card as a memento. Back aboard the Radiance Messenger, Shade found that Luvia and Flora had saved him a dessert, then checked in on Miss Olanord and Emilia before ending the night.

• Shade revealed that he had 21, and the Masked Man drew the king and Founding, giving Shade the win.
• The Masked Man let Shade choose a special card, and Shade took Firearm Double-Barreled Shotgun, Stars 2.
• Shade returned to the Radiance Messenger, where Little Mia guarded a cake that Luvia and Flora had saved for him.
• Shade visited Miss Olanord and found her talking with Miss Danist, then left them to their academic discussion.
• Shade went to greet Emilia and found her with Angelina, hiding a robe beside Emilia's open suitcase of clothes from the Fifth Epoch.

Emilia reunited with Shade, pledged to become the Chosen One of Time, and asked to make him a wish once their current struggle ended. Shade then returned to the ship and explained to Sylvia why he was delaying a relationship with Adele Isabella, leaving the question of how to reconcile his feelings for Adele and Isabella unresolved.

• Emilia told Shade she had missed him, promised to help finish the story of Vesta Woodland, and embraced him after he welcomed her back.
• Emilia asked Shade to grant her a wish after everything was over, but kept the wish secret.
• Shade returned through the Teleportation Gate to the ship, where Sylvia said they had decided not to sever it and that Miss Isabella would probably arrive the next afternoon.
• Sylvia questioned Shade about why he was avoiding Adele Isabella, and Shade explained that he wanted to meet the other Witches first so the Speaker could consider her own affairs without compromising her duties.
• Shade privately acknowledged that he still did not know how to handle his feelings for Adele of the Past and Isabella of the Present World.