Recaps

Shade learned where a wisp of the Divided First Fire rested and began the Goddess in the Lake’s second Trial: investigating Professor Kansas Drake’s forgotten wish and its price. After searching Drake’s old materials together, they uncovered a diary, letters, and a worn book as their first clues.

• The Goddess in the Lake told Sister Devlin that a wisp of the First Fire rested in the Old Lighthouse on Lake Heart Island in the Pantanal Great Swamp, where it helped stabilize the swamp’s balance.
• The White Robed Lady invited Sister Devlin to become Wisdom’s agent, but Sister Devlin refused because she had devoted herself to watching over the First Fire.
• Shade returned to the lakeside with Sister Devlin and began his second Trial, then visited Professor Kansas Drake to explain that he must discover why Drake had sought the Goddess in the Lake, what he had wished for, and what price he had paid.
• Drake confirmed that he had encountered something supernatural before seeking the Goddess, retired early after an accident, and could not remember what he had been researching or what had happened that year.
• Shade and Drake searched through the professor’s old materials and found a diary, letters, and a worn old book.

Shade examined Professor Drake’s diaries, letters, and old book for clues about the professor’s past encounter, then visited Armand Bernhardt and translated part of an ancient spellbook. The chapter left Shade discussing his growing connection to Princess Margaret and his hopes of acquiring White River Valley Vineyard.

• Shade noticed Professor Drake’s diary mentioned red, swollen eyes and double vision shortly before the professor’s journey to Lake of Cherub.
• Shade found Professor Tiris Manning’s name among Drake’s letters and borrowed Drake’s old book, which bore faint traces of elements and the inscription “Knowledge is power.”
• Shade left Drake’s home and visited Armand Bernhardt’s estate, where he translated a passage about emotions from the Seven Emotions Spellbook.
• Armand Bernhardt asked Shade about Princess Margaret, and Shade said she had invited him to a Reading Salon and given him her personal handkerchief.

Shade arranged for Mr. Bernhardt to investigate unusual events in Huntington and helped Miss Danist prepare to test the Guiding Moon. He obtained the second Time Perception slab and used his Silver Moon Core Ling Rune to reveal its contents, leaving him with knowledge that might concern time.

• Shade asked Mr. Bernhardt to have his priest friend investigate strange events in Huntington and learned the results would arrive by Sunday.
• Shade told Miss Danist he had met the Guiding Moon, and she prepared an Alchemy Item to gather spirit light when the Guiding Moon revealed her Destiny Ring.
• Shade received the second slab from Mr. Edmund in Coldwater Port and realized it might respond to the power of the moon.
• Shade summoned his Destiny Ring and illuminated the slab with his Silver Moon Core Ling Rune, causing silver light and markings to appear.
• Shade touched the glowing slab and received its complex, disordered knowledge in his mind.

Shade learned that the Time Stone Slab contained fragmented knowledge for strengthening Time Perception, then went to meet Professor Manning and encountered Iluna investigating a theft. Iluna revealed that the theft involved an unseen Humanoid Relic known as the Invisible Man.

• Shade confirmed that the slab's knowledge was related to strengthening Time Perception and wondered why the Gray-Robed Sage had left it intact.
• Shade learned from Mia that the slab contained Miracle Element as pure as the Silver Moon, then stored it in the basement with the banknote printing plates.
• Shade went to Professor Manning's home, but found no one there and waited for the professor to return.
• Iluna arrived at 17 Cat Tail Alley and told Shade she was investigating a theft on Ridgewich Field's commission.
• Iluna explained that the Creation Church had warned the churches about a theft-related Humanoid Relic called the Invisible Man, whose main body no one had seen.

Shade learned about Jack the Thief and accompanied Iluna as she investigated the Relic’s theft from Professor Tiris Manning. The examination found faint traces of the Whisper Element but no sign that Manning had been infected, leaving the thief unidentified.

• Iluna explained Jack the Thief’s traits, its effects on victims, and the Church’s investigation of recent thefts.
• Shade and Iluna discussed Vinales’ Trial, the Fourth Chosen One, and why Apna Library had shared information with The Truth Society.
• Shade used Iluna’s Divine Art Item to check Professor Tiris Manning and found no indication that the professor had been affected.
• Iluna questioned Manning and inspected the living room, where she and Shade found faint traces of the Whisper Element and evidence that the thief had opened a locked window with a wire.
• Iluna collected rust from the window for the Church’s divination, and she and Shade found nothing else in the room.

Shade questioned Professor Manning about Professor Drake’s unusual inspiration and borrowed their old letters to investigate Drake’s condition. He then went to the Black Raven Library to seek lightning Thaumaturgy and recognized Margaret Anjou as the black-robed visitor he passed.

• Iluna left Professor Manning’s home after Shade mentioned his lunch plans with Little Mia.
• Professor Manning told Shade about Professor Drake’s strong inspiration and lent him their old letters, along with a sealed letter for Drake.
• Shade set out to find Thaumaturgy related to his Blasphemy—Thunder Spirit Rune at the Black Raven Library.
• Shade disguised himself and entered the library, where he passed Margaret Anjou in a black robe.

Shade visited Old John Pawnshop and accepted a Hermit Order commission to collect materials from Apna Library on Saturday night. He then accompanied Doctor Schneider to meet a patient with persecutory delusion at Three Cats Inn.

• Shade declined to buy any Thunder Thaumaturgies at Black Raven Library and later met Iluna for lunch with Little Mia.
• Shade sent Miss Sylvia an express letter asking to meet about his paper, then chose to visit Old John Pawnshop instead of reading Professor Manning's letters.
• Old John hired Shade for twenty-five pounds to collect the Hermit Order's materials from Apna Library on Saturday night, while withholding details about the goods.
• Doctor Schneider invited Shade to assess his patient, Mr. Jims, whose persecutory delusion had responded only slightly to treatment.
• Shade and Doctor Schneider traveled to Three Cats Inn, where Mr. Jims had agreed to meet them on the second floor.

Shade accompanied Doctor Schneider to the Three Cats Inn to help treat Mr. Jims, whose fear of fatal accidents had worsened over the past three months. After questioning him, Shade suggested confronting the danger directly and placed the Gun of Kindness on the table.

• Mrs. Sangmei welcomed Shade and Doctor Schneider to the Three Cats Inn and gave them fried beans in thanks for the Detective’s Penny Problem.
• Doctor Schneider brought Mr. Jims to meet Shade, and Mr. Jims described his persistent belief that ordinary accidents would kill him.
• Doctor Schneider explained that medication eased Mr. Jims’s tension but had done little to lessen his sense of impending crisis.
• Shade asked whether Mr. Jims had encountered anything supernatural before his symptoms began, but Mr. Jims could recall nothing unusual.
• Shade suggested that Mr. Jims put himself in genuine danger, then drew the Gun of Kindness and laid it on the table.

Shade and Doctor Schneider discovered that Mr. Jims’s sense of impending danger came from an inherited supernatural item linked to the Old God White Sacred Tree, which foretold a real fatal crisis. As they prepared to investigate, Margaret Anjou arrived upstairs with Mr. Alan Madison, while Shade noticed a headless woman at a table.

• Shade used the Gun of Kindness to expose Mr. Jims to danger, and the accountant’s feelings of danger diminished after he pulled the trigger twice without firing.
• Shade learned that Mr. Jims’s family worshipped the White Sacred Tree and suspected an inherited Divine Art Item was warning him of an approaching fatal crisis.
• Doctor Schneider put Mr. Jims to sleep, and he and Shade discussed the danger before preparing to alter the accountant’s memory and inspect his room.
• Mr. Alan Madison arrived on the second floor with a young girl whom Shade recognized as Margaret Anjou.
• Shade saw a woman remove her head, dislodge a peanut from her throat, replace her head, and continue drinking.

Shade and Doctor Schneider watched Mr. Madison and Princess Margaret attempt to contain a woman connected to a relic, but their attack failed and the woman’s curse trapped them together at Shade and the Doctor’s table. The chapter ended with the group gathered around the frozen woman as the Doctor demanded an explanation from Mr. Madison.

• Shade and Doctor Schneider observed the woman detach her head and sensed the Whisper Element, while Mr. Madison and Princess Margaret investigated her.
• Mr. Madison and Princess Margaret tried to subdue the woman with spellcasting and containment items, but she repelled them and cursed them with a head-waving relic effect.
• The woman fled to Shade and Doctor Schneider’s table, where her curse marked Shade, the Doctor, Mr. Madison, and Princess Margaret with black lines on their necks.
• Mr. Madison and Princess Margaret sat with Shade and the Doctor, and Princess Margaret introduced herself to Shade as Miss Mary.
• The Doctor complained to Mr. Madison about his bad luck and asked what was happening with the frozen woman.

Mr. Madison and the others tried to contain the Charles II's Beheading Curse, but its flying head escaped into the fog and revealed that it could multiply. Shade and Princess Margaret faced a swarm of hundreds of heads as the chapter ended.

• Mr. Madison explained that the parasite had infected the four Ring Arcanists, was malnourished, and needed to be subdued without attracting ordinary people's attention.
• Mr. Madison attacked the frozen woman with two engraved metal rods, causing her head to separate and split into two heads that fled in different directions.
• Doctor Schneider pursued one head while Shade and Princess Margaret chased the other through a window into a fog-filled alley.
• Princess Margaret summoned Killer Jack and used spells to slow the heads, but the heads resisted the doll's dagger and her freezing magic.
• Shade arrived and destroyed two head-shaped clones with moonlight and Mind Blast, then saw hundreds of heads advancing through the fog with Princess Margaret.

Shade helped Princess Margaret contain the Document Level Relic Charles II's Beheading Curse and remove it from its victim. After Margaret left Tobesk, Shade asked Doctor Schneider to alert him if Sir Prisha became involved in local relic-related activities.

• Princess Margaret warned Shade that the relic was losing control, but Shade resisted its curse and destroyed its flying-head duplicates with the Great Sin Chains.
• Shade subdued the remaining head and packed it away, then returned with Princess Margaret to the Three Cats Inn.
• Shade, Doctor Schneider, Mr. Madison, and Princess Margaret prepared a ritual to extract the relic from the unconscious woman.
• Princess Margaret cut off the woman's head and drew the parasitic relic into a flask, then stitched the head back on while Mr. Madison sealed the relic in its containment case.
• Mr. Madison sent the recovering woman away, and Princess Margaret paid Shade and Doctor Schneider before leaving.
• Shade told Doctor Schneider to inform him if Sir Prisha took part in relic containment or other Ring Arcanist activities in Tobesk.

Shade and Doctor Schneider cured Mr. Jims’s fear of danger through hypnosis, then Shade welcomed the Great Witch, Miss Sylvia, to his home for a late-night visit. The chapter ended with Sylvia beginning her first visit to Shade’s house.

• Doctor Schneider and Shade convinced Mr. Jims that his fear of danger had been cured by a life-and-death experience in a dream.
• Mr. Jims showed Shade and Doctor Schneider his ancient holy emblem, which Shade recognized as a Divine Art Item nearing the end of its power.
• Doctor Schneider paid Shade five pounds, and Shade treated Little Mia to dinner.
• Miss Sylvia left Princess Margaret near Saint Derain Square and went to inspect Shade’s paper and discuss Laguerre’s Leap with him.
• Shade greeted Miss Sylvia at the door, and she entered his home with Little Mia.

Luvia visited Shade and told him she had tracked down Miss Pawo, a Sixth Ring Arcanist of The Truth Society who carried the dangerous Angel Level Relic Smallville Codex. They agreed to focus on identifying the next Keeper of Secrets, while Luvia warned Shade to remember the consequences of their choices.

• Luvia arrived at Shade's home and met Emma Sylvia, who had stayed overnight after working with Shade on a paper about space.
• After Emma Sylvia left, Luvia told Shade she had found Miss Pawo by investigating Viscount Witte and The Truth Society's ties to his family.
• Luvia said Miss Pawo was not a Chosen One and revealed that her book was the Level 1 Relic Smallville Codex, an Angel Level Relic from the Second Epoch.
• Shade and Luvia agreed that they did not need to focus on Miss Pawo for now and planned to compare the next Keeper of Secrets list with the Lake View Manor guest list.
• Luvia urged Shade to get information through Princess Leisha rather than relying on Iluna, and reminded him that their decisions could affect the world's future.

Shade, Luvia, and their companions discussed a theft-related Humanoid Relic and prepared for their year-end examinations at Doctor Schneider's clinic. The Academy then announced that Tobesk's off-campus activity was canceled and offered an extraordinary bounty for information about dangerous trial-related relics, including the Wise Man's Gleaming Stone.

• Doctor Schneider warned the group about a Humanoid Relic that stole from Ring Arcanists, and Shade, Priest Augustus, and Luvia shared accounts of its unusual thefts around Tobesk.
• Priest Augustus explained that the thief possessed valuable treasures but was nearly impossible to catch because it appeared only during a theft and grew stronger against powerful opponents.
• The five group members discussed their examination plans, including Shade's application to skip directly from his second year to his fourth year.
• Doctor Schneider told the group that Saint Byron's had canceled its Tobesk off-campus activity because Princess Margaret Anjou's visit might cause trouble.
• Priest Augustus read the Academy's bounty for dangerous trial-related relics, offering major rewards for the Wise Man's Gleaming Stone, and Doctor Schneider concluded that the Academy must be desperate to obtain it.

Shade and his companions discussed the Wise Man’s Gleaming Stone, a mysterious trial, and the danger of pursuing a thief, then Shade went to a cemetery to collect Apna Library’s documents. He left with the suitcase and wondered whether to inspect it before delivering it to Old John.

• Shade, Luvia, Dorothy, and Doctor Schneider discussed exchanging the Wise Man’s Gleaming Stone for a Founding Series Rhodes Card and reported the Lake View Manor trial to the Academy, which rewarded them.
• Priest Augustus suggested the trial’s unseen person might be the thief targeting Tobesk, and Doctor Schneider urged the group to investigate together rather than act alone.
• Shade told Leisha he would be out that evening, and she agreed to stay home, look after Little Mia, and proofread Dorothy’s manuscript.
• Shade met an Apna Library contact at the eastern Public Cemetery, verified him with Old John’s code questions, and took the suitcase of documents.
• As Shade left the cemetery, he considered sneaking a look inside the suitcase before handing it to Old John.

Shade delivered the documents in an illegal transaction, but the Peace Church ambushed the cemetery. He escaped detection and found the injured Apna Library member who had traded with him, leaving with a chance to renew contact.

• Shade suspected that the Apna Library member might have tipped off the Church after finding golden warning threads woven across the cemetery fences.
• Shade used Laguerre's Leap to cross the Church's barrier, then returned to the cemetery as butterflies and hid among the gravestones with Red Butterfly Illusion.
• Shade waited until the Church's searchers passed, then disguised himself as gravestones and other objects to leave the cemetery unseen.
• Shade found the injured Apna Library member collapsing at the cemetery gate and offered to help him escape the Church.

Shade rescued an injured Apna Library member, earned fifty pounds, and recognized Sir Legenes Presia as a possible Academic Spy. After reporting to Old John, Shade learned that the Chosen One ritual had to take place on water, leaving his suspicions about Presia unconfirmed.

• Shade helped a mentally exhausted man escape the cemetery and took him to 21 Ikem Street, where the man’s associates paid Shade fifty pounds.
• Shade recognized Sir Legenes Presia among the masked Ring Arcanists and suspected that Presia was an Academic Spy connected to Apna Library.
• Shade returned to Old John’s pawnshop with the suitcase and recounted the Church’s ambush and his visit to Ikem Street.
• Old John promised to pressure Apna Library over the failed mission and warned Shade not to take the Canticles and Chosen Ones lightly.
• Shade examined Apna Library’s documents and learned that the Chosen One Ritual had to be conducted on water.
• Old John told Shade that Schneider trusted his judgment and suggested that Shade was working to preserve civilization.

Shade returned to the Fifth Epoch at Lost Lake to help the Witch Emperor seek the secret of Eternal Beauty, bringing Little Mia with him. He reunited with Violet and Teresa beside a bonfire, where their reunion ended just as Teresa urged them to discuss the important matter.

• Shade left home through the Time Corridor with Little Mia and learned that he had thirty minutes to help a mortal obtain the secret of Eternal Beauty from a god.
• Shade crossed the mist-covered lake as Red Butterflies and was spotted by Teresa and Violet on Lake Heart Island.
• Teresa and three maids used a rope to pull Shade from the lake and welcome him back.
• Shade brought Little Mia out of its toy form, and Violet praised the cat and joked about trading an earldom for it.
• Teresa interrupted Shade and Violet's conversation and reminded them to discuss the important matter.

Shade met Miss Violet and Miss Teresa at their camp, exchanged research papers with them, and discussed his connection to the Night Watchman. Before they left the lake, Miss Violet showed him the Brave Man's Food Pocket, which produced a peeled Egg for him.

• Miss Violet gave Shade her improved Fire Resistance Potion formula, Miss Teresa shared part of her thesis, and Shade handed them his own thesis.
• Miss Violet asked Shade what he was and whether he had used the Night Watchman; Shade admitted he had used it at another point in time but refused to explain how he had arrived.
• Miss Violet corrected Miss Teresa when she asked what her aunt had inferred, saying that such matters were beyond a Witch who had not yet begun her career.
• Miss Violet decided the group had stayed at the lakeside camp long enough, and the Head Maid explained that their relics and supplies could sustain them.
• Miss Violet offered Shade the Brave Man's Food Pocket, and he drew out a steaming peeled Egg while Mia showed no interest in eating it.

Shade, Miss Violet, and Miss Teresa crossed Lake Heart Island’s dangerous thorn thickets and entered the Obsidian Tower, where the god had moved to the second floor. They discovered a hidden staircase that could only be found and climbed through direct contact with bare skin.

• Shade used the Night Watchman and Moonbeam Greatsword to clear a path through the thorn thickets as he and the two Witches reached the Obsidian Tower.
• Shade noticed golden fissures spreading across his body after he opened the tower door, then gave Miss Violet and Miss Teresa his true name before entering.
• Shade found the tower’s first floor empty and, with the Witches, discovered an invisible staircase concealed in the water mist.
• Shade learned that the staircase appeared only through direct contact and that shoes could not touch it, so he removed his boots and socks and advised the Witches to do the same.

Shade, Miss Violet, and Miss Teresa reached the Second Floor of the tower and passed the God of the Lake’s first trial by offering Crystallizations of Wisdom. The god granted them the Wise Man’s Blessing and set a second trial requiring a satisfactory water sacrifice, while Miss Teresa insisted on continuing despite the strain on her mind.

• Shade led Miss Violet and Miss Teresa up the twisting invisible staircase to the tower’s Second Floor, where he offered their papers to the stream and discovered that Miss Violet’s and his own qualified as Crystallizations of Wisdom, but Miss Teresa’s did not.
• The God of the Lake emerged from a whirlpool, accepted Shade’s and Miss Violet’s papers, and rewarded all three with the permanent Wise Man’s Blessing after Shade answered that wisdom was like flowing water.
• The god set a second trial requiring a water sacrifice and withheld the third trial’s details until they completed it.
• Outside the tower, Miss Violet listed ordinary offerings made by the god’s followers, while Shade healed Miss Teresa’s mental strain with Cindyia’s Silver Moon Gift.
• Miss Teresa refused to give up, and Miss Violet agreed to take her back into the tower next time despite warning that she might not return.

Shade learned that the sacrifice for the God of the Lake’s Sage’s Test might be water imbued with the power of an Ancient God, then returned to his own era. There, he received Miss Danist’s alchemy item for collecting spirit radiance and considered how to use it to investigate Sir Prisha.

• Shade asked Miss Violet and Miss Teresa about a suitable sacrifice, and they suggested searching for water containing an Ancient God’s power.
• Miss Violet sensed an incomplete Echo from Shade and realized he reflected the past and traveled through time; she told Miss Teresa that Shade would visit their era only once more.
• Shade returned home, where Little Mia rejected a dried sausage from the Fifth Epoch because time had made it inedible.
• Shade found a heavy crate from Taylor and Wanda United Mining Company and told Dorothy that it contained the item for Miss Danist’s Academy commission.
• Shade read Miss Danist’s instructions and learned that the mirror-based alchemy item could collect spirit radiance but required careful containment between uses.

Shade visited Iluna at Blackstone Security Company to discuss Professor Manning’s theft and ask for help investigating the Cult of the Old God, but learned the company had itself been robbed by Jack the Thief. Iluna agreed to investigate Shade’s request and warned that many organizations had gathered in Tobesk for the Keeper of Secrets’ trial.

• Dorothy explained the danger and history of the Evil Mirror of Burgundy, then shared breakfast with Shade and discussed winter preparations.
• Shade left with Little Mia and arrived at Blackstone Security Company, where Mr. Robinson directed him to Iluna.
• Iluna told Shade that Jack the Thief had stolen the level 3 Mandela Snake Nest Bottle from the company’s storage room, threatening the team’s evaluation and bonuses.
• Shade asked Iluna to investigate the Cult of the Old God, and she agreed to seek information through the Church.
• Iluna warned Shade to guard against theft and described the organizations gathering in Tobesk, explaining that they were drawn by the Keeper of Secrets’ trial rather than the Fourth Chosen One.

Shade visited Priest Augustus, who identified the Goddess in the Lake as likely an ancient Angel called Cherub and gave Shade a scorched feather to use during her trial. After a Sunday of church duties, Shade received Leisha’s invitation to a Wednesday Reading Salon and began Monday by checking that his home’s steam heating worked.

• Shade asked Priest Augustus to investigate the Uncertain Wise Man cult commission and showed him Miss Violet’s Fire Resistance Potion recipe, which Augustus recognized as an exceptionally effective but prohibitively expensive formula.
• After sensing Cherub’s scent on Shade and Mia, Priest Augustus heard about Shade’s meeting with the Goddess in the Lake and concluded she was likely an ancient Angel.
• Priest Augustus promised to investigate Cherub’s identity and gave Shade a scorched feather to present to her, hoping it would ease Shade’s trial.
• Shade spent the afternoon attending church service and distributing relief food to the poor before returning to Saint Derain Square.
• Shade received Leisha’s invitation to a Wednesday Reading Salon at the Seer Association and considered the risks to Princess Margaret.
• On Monday morning, Shade checked his home’s newly activated steam heating with Mia and confirmed there were no leaks.