Recaps

After returning to Sophia Manor, Shade waited through a series of preparations while Leisha got dressed, then joined her for lunch. The two reunited at the dining table, where Leisha planned to host a grand feast for him that evening.

• Shade refused the Princess's maids' offer to help him bathe and washed up alone.
• Lya Hels kept Shade occupied with grooming and clothes while Leisha finished dressing, and explained that the manor's staff knew who he was.
• Shade learned that Leisha's trusted people were aware of her friends and that the King knew about them.
• Shade entered the dining hall and saw Leisha dressed in a Princess gown beneath a portrait of Mier Cavendish, the Red Lion.
• Leisha welcomed Shade to lunch and told him that the grand feast she had planned would be served that evening.

Shade and Leisha learned that the Scarlet Secret Society had spent centuries preparing a Sea Burial ritual to drown Coldwater Port and make it a home for its Fishmen. The Church’s investigation uncovered the ritual’s purpose, while Shade remained beside Leisha as they awaited the Red Ocean and the ritual’s final stage.

• Shade told Leisha that the curse could make her walk into the sea when the Red Ocean appeared, and they planned to keep her safe until the ritual ended.
• The Church searched Coldwater Port after capturing Fishmen and taking Kezhem Lane and Jude Manor, uncovering evidence of the Scarlet Secret Society’s long presence in the city.
• A royal contact’s report confirmed that thirteen Ring Arcanists had encountered the pirate ship and that the Sea Burial ritual was not a God Summoning ritual.
• Leisha explained that the ritual would sacrifice people tainted by divine power, awaken power left in the deep sea, and summon tides to drown Coldwater Port.
• Leisha identified the Scarlet Secret Society as the only cult involved, explaining that its Fishmen sought a permanent habitat and were bound to Coldwater Port by an ancient contract.

Leisha told Shade that the Church and the Three Great Arcane Academies were mobilizing to stop the Sea Burial ritual in Coldwater Port, whose final stage was expected next Wednesday. She asked him to stay by her side then, and the two ended the evening in the estate garden discussing their plans and memories.

• Leisha explained that the Political Economy Colleges handled nonhuman races and that scholars, Church officials, and secret orders were arriving in Coldwater Port.
• Shade learned that the Fishbone Pirate Ship had abducted all 123 people aboard a steam cargo ship while leaving its pets unharmed.
• Leisha said the Sea Burial ritual’s third stage was expected next Wednesday and asked Shade to be with her as the Church tried to stop it on land.
• Shade asked Leisha to help locate the other nine Ring Arcanists from their ship, especially Mr. Darkness, and told her he still needed fifteen credits.
• Leisha offered to lend Shade money for relics, then took him through the estate garden and recalled her childhood before asking him not to tell stories until the incident was over.

Shade enjoyed dinner with Leisha, returned home to discover Mia's interest in the room where a mass suicide had occurred, and prepared for Iluna's return to Tobesk. On August 1, Shade and Luvia waited at the station, where Iluna's train arrived early.

• Leisha hosted Shade for dinner, burned a letter about Delarion's planned trade agreement with Kasonlik, and listened as he reflected on his life.
• Shade returned home to find Dorothy watching Mia, and Dorothy told him the Cat had been sniffing around Room Two on the 2nd Floor.
• Dorothy asked when Shade would visit Leisha again, and Shade said he planned to go on Monday and still needed fifteen credits.
• Shade left early on Thursday to meet Iluna, who was returning to Tobesk from the Church of the Sun's headquarters.
• Luvia joined Shade at Tobesk Station, and they went into a restaurant to discuss news from Coldwater Port while they waited for Iluna.
• A crowd of travelers poured out of the station at seven twenty, and Shade and Luvia realized Iluna's train had arrived early.

Iluna returned from her Church leave and reunited with Shade and Luvia, promising to share what she had learned the next day. Priest Augustus then arrived at Shade’s home in shock, revealing that the potion Shade had won was a genuine, unexpired Fishman's Elixir of Immortality.

• Iluna met Luvia and Shade after returning, gave them travel souvenirs, and arranged to meet at Shade’s home the next morning.
• Shade returned home and found Priest Augustus waiting outside, urgently asking where Shade had obtained the potion he had brought for appraisal.
• Shade said he had won the potion in a Rhodes Cards game and explained that his opponent had said it was related to the Elixir of Immortality.
• Priest Augustus identified the potion as the Fishman's Elixir of Immortality, a master-level brew once obtainable only by powerful Witches from aberrant merfolk.
• Priest Augustus revealed that the potion had not expired, and Shade asked whether it could help recover the lost techniques for making it.

Shade and Priest Augustus investigated the strange circumstances surrounding painter Myerson Freeman’s death after learning that he had seen invisible people in his house. The priest showed Shade a crude wooden carving Freeman had made, leaving the source of the painter’s experiences unexplained.

• Shade learned that the Elixir of Immortality could restore youth for only a week and could be worth at least 2,300 Gold Pounds.
• Shade and Priest Augustus left Mia at home and set out to investigate Myerson Freeman’s death.
• Priest Augustus explained that Freeman had claimed there were invisible people in his house before he died after falling down the stairs.
• Priest Augustus told Shade that Freeman had developed an interest in wood carving shortly before his death and showed him one of Freeman’s badly carved wooden figures.

Shade and Priest Augustus searched the Freeman house for the cause of Mister Freeman’s death but found no supernatural traces. Mister Freeman’s recent paintings suggested that strange Post Office crates from Kasonlik might have played a role, so they went to question Mrs. Freeman.

• Shade and Priest Augustus entered the empty Freeman house and found bloodstains along the stairs leading from the attic, where Mister Freeman had fallen.
• Priest Augustus sensed that Mister Freeman had felt unusual terror before his death, and he raised the possibility that Mrs. Freeman had caused the accident, though he had no evidence.
• Shade inspected Mister Freeman’s paintings and found a blurry figure in one depiction of the house, as well as a painting of Post Office crates marked as shipped from Kasonlik.
• Shade and Priest Augustus searched the house and garden but found no spirits, relics, or other unusual traces.
• After lunch, Shade and Priest Augustus took a carriage to the apartment where Mrs. Freeman and her children were staying, intending to ask about the crates.

Shade Hamilton and Priest Augustus investigated the paintings linked to Mister Freeman’s death and discovered that one had gone missing. Mrs. Freeman described the missing painting as depicting several strange objects, leaving Shade and the Priest to wonder who had taken it and what it might mean.

• Priest Augustus introduced Shade Hamilton to Mrs. Freeman, who explained that the attic paintings were her husband’s discarded drafts and described his fatal accident.
• Mrs. Freeman said Mister Freeman had recently received a batch of old paintings from a friend, prompting Shade and Priest Augustus to suspect they were connected to his death.
• Mrs. Freeman showed them the paintings stored in a wooden crate, and Priest Augustus found an empty slot in the portfolio.
• Shade and Priest Augustus called for the children while Mrs. Freeman tried to identify the missing painting.
• Mrs. Freeman recalled that it depicted a Black Apple, a two-headed Plaster Statue, a wooden model house, a golden Pendant, and an Antique Vase with a strange pattern.

Shade and Priest Augustus discovered that the missing oil painting was a relic that linked its puppets to people who touched it, allowing a bandaged attacker in the picture to wound them. They escaped the bedroom and then the house, but Shade returned inside with George to keep the puppets from going upstairs, leaving Mrs. Freeman and Liya outside with Priest Augustus.

• Shade and Priest Augustus found George asleep and frightened after a dream about a bandaged figure, but he remembered no details.
• George’s sister recalled that he had found a painting while searching for toys, and the group discovered the rolled-up oil painting under his bed.
• The painting showed puppets resembling Shade and George in a model of the apartment, where a bandaged puppet attacked them and injured Shade through the image.
• Shade and the others fled the room and reached the street, while the painted puppets followed them through the model house.
• Shade realized that only people who touched the painting barehanded appeared as puppets, then went back inside as George followed with his mother and Priest Augustus stayed outside with Liya.

Shade and Priest Augustus investigated the Relic Oil Painting’s rules and found that attacks only hastened the Bandage Puppet’s pursuit. They brought Mister Freeman’s carved puppet into the painting, where his soul joined the others, and Shade created a puppet gun to help them fight back.

• Shade confirmed that the painting’s puppets mirrored people in the house and that puppet injuries eventually killed their real counterparts.
• Shade failed to damage the painting and found that his attacks made the Bandage Puppet move faster.
• Shade placed Mister Freeman’s wooden carving on the painting, and it melted into the scene as a puppet containing Mister Freeman’s soul.
• George recognized his father in the painting, and Mrs. Freeman embraced him as he cried.
• Shade used a handkerchief and his revolver to produce a wooden puppet shaped like a toy pistol, which he called a puppet gun.

Shade and Priest Augustus discovered that they could reach through the oil painting to retrieve objects, but the Bandage Puppet grew more dangerous as the Relic threatened Shade and the Freeman boy. Priest Augustus returned with Mia, whom Shade hoped could help him reach the model house.

• Shade sent a revolver and identification into the painting, but his armed puppet failed to defeat the Bandage Puppet and retreated after running out of bullets.
• Shade discovered writing on the painting that let him and Priest Augustus reach through it and remove objects, though neither could touch the model house.
• Shade asked Priest Augustus to fetch Mia, while Mrs. Freeman and her son promised to keep the supernatural incident secret.
• The Bandage Puppet sped up and cornered the puppets, badly injuring Mister Freeman's puppet as it protected the boy.
• Priest Augustus returned with Mia, and Shade welcomed the cat and held her.

Shade used Mia the cat to push the house model out of the oil painting, ending the relic’s hold on the Freemans and freeing Mister Freeman’s soul. After the Bandage Puppet escaped and was destroyed, Shade took the painting and stayed behind to help Mister Freeman move on.

• Shade put Mia into the painting and coaxed her into pushing the house model off the table.
• The house model crashed outside the painting, breaking the link that had shared the puppet’s injuries with Shade and the boy.
• A bandaged monster emerged from the painting and attacked the boy, but Mister Freeman’s soul blocked its strike while Shade and Priest Augustus destroyed it.
• Shade and Priest Augustus reassured Mrs. Freeman, who let them take the painting away.
• After Priest Augustus left with Mrs. Freeman and the boy, Shade stayed with Mister Freeman’s soul to persuade it to move on.

Shade helped Mister Freeman’s family by recovering his hidden savings, then submitted Madman Sean’s Painting Home to Saint Byron’s Academy. The Academy identified it as a Document Level, Level 4 relic and explained its puppet requirements, containment method, and the danger of its complete monster.

• Mister Freeman asked Shade to retrieve 50 pounds hidden beneath the attic floorboards and deliver it to his family, allowing Shade to keep a small fee.
• Shade placed the recovered money in the Freemans’ moving crate, then met Mrs. Freeman and her children outside Doctor Schneider’s clinic.
• Shade showed the painting to Doctor Schneider and Priest Augustus, and they sent it to Saint Byron’s Academy for assessment.
• Saint Byron’s Academy identified the painting as a known Document Level, Level 4 relic and explained how crafted puppets could free people trapped inside it.
• Shade read that the painting could be contained by leaving it untouched, and that a complete bandaged monster was a powerful evil entity requiring at least an 11 Rings Ring Arcanist to defeat.

Shade completed the recovery of the Endless Mercury Bottle and expected Academy credits and reward money, then spent the evening writing his report and worrying about expenses. On Friday, Iluna explained the powers and knowledge she gained as a Chosen One, leaving Shade and Luvia with new information about how the Chosen Ones were connected.

• Shade discussed his expected Academy credits and reward for recovering the Endless Mercury Bottle with Doctor Schneider and Priest Augustus, then thanked the Priest and went home with Mia.
• Shade treated Mia to dinner, wrote his relic recovery report, and worried about tuition and other expenses.
• Shade read about honorary degrees and told Luvia and Iluna he hoped to obtain an educational credential, but he remained concerned about the cost.
• Iluna demonstrated that her power of Balance could suppress or enhance Ring Arcanists, including High-Ring Arcanists, and said her abilities would grow as she advanced.
• Iluna told Shade and Luvia that Chosen Ones could sense one another, that their perception could be blocked after they received the relevant knowledge, and that every Chosen One had to be a Ring Arcanist with a unique ability.

Iluna explained the rules of the Chosen Ones and described the Judge’s Court, a White Fog space where people could trade what they possessed to alter themselves. Shade and Luvia learned how to enter and what the court could do, but the consequences of using its scales remained to be explored.

• Iluna told Shade and Luvia that if a candidate died, another would appear, but only one official Chosen One could exist for each Ancient God in the Sixth Epoch.
• Iluna explained that opening the Final Door would bring power and great changes, and that all the Chosen Ones would have to make one world-changing decision together.
• Iluna revealed that she could sense a White Fog space, and Shade recognized it as a place connected to the Ancient God of Balance, the Upside-down Judge.
• Iluna said the space was called the Judge’s Court and could be entered with a specific incantation and the Ancient God’s Holy Emblem, though she needed only the incantation.
• Iluna described how kneeling inside the court summoned a set of Dark Gold Scales, which let a person trade possessions such as power, memory, or lifespan to change their present and future, provided both sides were balanced.

Shade learned more about the Judge's Court and the Space Labyrinth from Iluna, then accepted three investigation commissions she brought from Blackstone Security Company. He began with a reportedly haunted vacant house at 6 Squirrel Alley, where the boarded-up windows and empty mailbox suggested someone had recently returned.

• Iluna explained that using the Judge's Court required three people, including someone with the Balance Spirit Rune, a judge bearing a holy emblem, and an audience member.
• Shade took Iluna to the basement idol, where she entered the Space Labyrinth but saw only the signpost for Saint Derain Square; Luvia speculated that only Shade could create new signposts by sacrificing White Stone Crystals.
• Iluna gave Shade three backlogged commissions, and he agreed to investigate a haunted vacant house, a mysterious person seen at noon, and a spice merchant while Iluna gathered information about the Coldwater Port Incident.
• Shade and Iluna failed to persuade Little Mia to leave with Iluna, then parted ways with Luvia and Iluna.
• Shade went to 6 Squirrel Alley to investigate the vacant apartment where Sal Hark had died, and noticed that its windows were boarded up while its mailbox was empty.

Shade investigated reports of a haunting and met Sal Hark, a lonely student who had died in his apartment and lingered as a soul. After helping Sal settle his affairs, Shade left with the dead student’s money and belongings, shaken by the reminder that he, too, was an Outlander with no one to inherit his estate.

• Shade searched Sal Hark’s apartment and learned from the soul that loose floorboards had caused the noises neighbors heard.
• Sal explained that a damaged bone necklace and unfinished business had kept him in the apartment, then asked Shade to retrieve items hidden beneath the floorboard.
• Shade found pornographic magazines, family photographs, a damaged bone necklace, and money; Sal asked him to destroy the photos and take the magazines and money.
• Sal told Shade that his family had died in a plague, he had no friends, and his school had handled his corpse before his soul vanished.
• Shade burned the photographs, carried the remaining belongings away, and reflected on having no one to inherit his estate.

Shade collected his salary from Military Intelligence Section Six and learned he had been promoted to major, then went to Lewis Street to investigate a man who had been watching Lady Swann. He spotted the black-clad voyeur as Lady Swann arrived, but the chapter ended before he could act.

• Shade paid the Steam Bird Daily and visited the Gas Company before collecting his salary from Mr. Giles Johnson at the Military Intelligence Section Six outpost.
• Mr. Johnson told Shade he had been promoted to major and raised his weekly salary to five pounds, then discussed Kasonlik's Gray Gloves and the elusive spy known as the Gray-headed Eagle.
• Shade learned that Lady Swann had reported a mysterious man watching her on Lewis Street and went there to investigate before noon.
• Shade waited on Lewis Street for Lady Swann, then saw a man dressed entirely in black emerge from the shadows of an alley as she arrived.

Shade investigated the man who had been watching Miss Swann and discovered he was an ordinary, disfigured local who admired her. After warning him to leave her alone, Shade headed to the North District Tax Bureau and planned to tell Iluna what he had learned.

• Shade followed the watcher into Black Corner Alley and deduced he was hiding in the second building on the left.
• Shade tricked the man into opening his door and confirmed through a handshake that he was not a Ring Arcanist.
• The man admitted he had watched Miss Swann because he admired her, and Shade warned him not to disturb her or let his feelings turn into harmful actions.
• The man promised to stop watching Miss Swann, and Shade left the alley after warning that the police would intervene if he harmed her.
• Shade ate lunch, then took a carriage toward the North District Tax Bureau to settle his taxes and tell Iluna about the investigation.

After filing his taxes, Shade visited Iluna and then traveled to Saint Song Square to find a spice merchant for her final commission. The Outlander took in the Lower District’s crowded, impoverished trading center, gaining insight into the unfamiliar world.

• Shade paid 7 pounds and 14 shillings in taxes and received a tin of malt candy as a gift.
• Shade gave the malt candy to Iluna and explained the two commissions he had already completed.
• Iluna said the Captain would handle the peeping incident and discussed how the response depended on the offender’s behavior.
• Shade left Iluna and took a carriage to Saint Song Square to look for the spice merchant.
• Shade explored the bustling Lower District square, and the Destiny Ring gathered Brass-Colored Enlightenment Element as he reflected on its people and way of life.

Shade investigated the spice seller at Saint Song Square for Iluna and discovered that the seller, Alan Madison, was a Sixth Ring Arcanist carrying out a ritual required to learn a special Thaumaturgy. The chapter ended with Doctor Schneider questioning whether Madison had been deceived by the Thaumaturgy’s unusually complicated learning requirements.

• Shade identified the scarf-wrapped spice seller at Saint Song Square as a mid-ring Arcanist and used a conversation with a grocer to learn that the seller had recently begun appearing at the square.
• Shade sold three picture books to the grocer and learned that the spice seller, Alan Madison, kept regular hours and did not come on Sundays.
• Doctor Schneider arrived and greeted Madison, then introduced Shade as a newcomer from their group and took them to the Three Cats Inn.
• Shade told Madison that the Orthodox Church had noticed his special spices and sent a subordinate Ring Arcanist Squad to investigate.
• Madison explained that selling spices at Saint Song Square was part of the ritual required to learn a special Thaumaturgy, and Doctor Schneider questioned whether he had been deceived.

Shade learned that Mr. Madison’s Merchant Instinct Thaumaturgy was real and that the spice merchant planned to leave Saint Song Square after attracting the Church’s attention. Mr. Madison also revealed the tragedy behind Doctor Schneider’s resolve to inherit a former companion’s wish and teach at Saint Byron’s, while Shade left with more questions about the academies.

• Mr. Madison explained that his Merchant Instinct Thaumaturgy revealed people’s psychological price points, and he agreed to leave Saint Song Square and let Shade report that he had vanished.
• Mr. Madison told Shade that Schneider’s original group included an Eighth Ring Arcanist and a Third Ring Arcanist, who died in a major incident more than ten years earlier after saving Schneider.
• Mr. Madison said Schneider had vowed to inherit the Eighth Ring Arcanist’s wish of becoming a teacher at Saint Byron’s, but he stopped before explaining the incident when the Doctor returned.
• Shade and Mr. Madison pretended they had been discussing Rhodes Cards, then exchanged business cards before parting ways at the Three Cats Inn.
• Shade rode with the Doctor and learned that Serkeses Higher Medical College was reportedly located in a vast water-free space beneath the sea.

Shade received a letter from Miss Mia San Goode about Mia the cat and learned that Professor Manning had found a member of the Guiding Light Club. At Professor Heink’s home, Shade showed him a symbol linked to his investigation and noticed the professor’s reaction.

• Shade received Miss Goode’s letter, which included money for Mia’s upkeep and explained that her family troubles and health problems would keep her from retrieving the cat this year.
• Shade read Professor Manning’s letter identifying the Guiding Light Club as a doomsday organization supported by the Guiding Light Hermitage and arranging a meeting with Professor Heink.
• Shade met Professor Heink at Professor Manning’s home and confirmed that the philosophy professor was an ordinary person.
• Shade described his client’s search for the origins of mysterious symbols and showed Professor Heink a triangle symbol containing a winged person.
• Shade noticed Professor Heink’s eyes widen when he saw the symbol.

Shade persuaded Professor Heink to contact the Hermit Order and learned that the Academy had promoted him to second year after awarding him credits for the Mercury Vial. He received his new curriculum and paid the fees, while the group's off-campus practice was postponed until later in August.

• Shade showed Professor Heink the symbol and offered him money, then convinced him to arrange a meeting with the Hermit Order.
• Shade submitted the Mercury Vial through the Poetry Manuscript Paper, and the Academy awarded him five credits, bringing his total to fifteen.
• Shade paid 325 pounds for his second-year tuition and books, leaving him with just over 200 pounds in usable savings and money still owed to the group.
• The Academy sent Shade over forty books and a list of twenty-one required second-year courses, while Priest Augustus and Dorothy chose new electives.
• Doctor Schneider learned that the Academy had postponed the summer off-campus practice in Tobesk until the latter half of August.

Shade learned that the Guiding Light Hermitage had agreed to meet him for a transaction, and he met its representative, Sivor Rendall, at the White Swan Restaurant. The chapter ended with Sivor asking who was really seeking the Hermitage and what they wanted.

• Dorothy announced that her detective novel, Detective Hamilton Story Collection, would begin serialization in the Steam Bird Daily, while the others discussed their plans and Shade celebrated his promotion to the second year.
• Shade received Professor McKain’s letter saying that local Ring Arcanists from the Guiding Light Hermitage had agreed to meet him at the White Swan Restaurant.
• Shade arranged for Dorothy to watch from outside and went to the restaurant, where he used a box of Candle Brand matches as the meeting token.
• Shade met Sivor Rendall, a fourth-ring Ring Arcanist who worked as a secretary for the University Federation, and they ordered only light meals.
• Sivor asked Shade what he wanted from the Hermitage and suggested that someone behind him was actually seeking them.