Recaps

Shade learned that the Dragon scale could grant Golden Dragon blood or open the Holy White Chapel, but he declined to use it and kept it for the possible Chosen One. After spending the night with Miss Galina, he began preparing to use the Time Key and travel into the past.

• Shade heard from Miss Belinder that the Ancient God Dragon scale had two uses and that the Chosen One of Light was expected to appear in Moon Bay.
• Shade refused Miss Belinder's offer to use the scale and asked her to keep it until the Chosen One Ritual's connection to it became clearer.
• Miss Belinder told Shade about her investigation into the Seekers of Light Research Society before he left for home.
• Shade returned to find Tifa and the maids waiting, and Miss Galina later joined him for dinner after the Council meeting.
• Miss Galina said she had passed Shade's request for help to Miss Benanis, but Shade would have to wait until at least the next day for an answer.
• On Friday morning, Miss Galina kept Shade in bed past his planned wake-up time, so he began packing for the past at seven.

Shade returned to the Sea of No Light and found Miss Teresa waiting on the floating platform, where he comforted her and learned that the other three women had repeatedly tried to throw themselves into the sea. He planned to fish for Teresa’s maid next, while Little Mia joined him on the platform.

• Shade entered the Time Corridor and returned to the Sea of No Light, where he swam to the floating platform and met Dream Giver fishing.
• Shade awakened Miss Teresa with Cindyia's Silver Moon Gift, and she embraced and kissed him after believing she had escaped her nightmare.
• Miss Teresa told Shade that the other three women had tried to leave the platform and that their prayers had summoned countless rotten hands from the sea.
• Shade questioned whether the maid Wayne Maxim and the other two women were truly who they claimed to be, then said he would try to fish up the maid.
• Shade dried his coat and Little Mia, transformed the cat back, and let her hide in his clothes as he and Miss Teresa prepared to approach the others.

Shade questioned the awakened women about the Radiance Messenger’s sinking and what they had done beforehand. Maggie Malone admitted she had boarded to find something, then described meeting a beautiful blue-eyed woman who vanished before the shipwreck.

• Shade asked Miss Teresa, Miss Maxim, Professor Evans, and Maggie Malone whether they remembered new details about the Radiance Messenger’s sinking, but none recalled anything specific.
• Miss Teresa and Miss Maxim recounted their evening together, while Professor Evans said she heard signs of a theft aboard the ship before going to bed.
• Maggie Malone described drinking stolen rum and mentioned a captain and first mate carrying an oilcloth-covered box, then admitted she had no sister and had boarded to find something.
• Maggie said she entered an unlocked first-class cabin intending to search it, but instead met a beautiful blue-eyed woman who took her to watch the sunset and invited her to pose naked for an oil portrait.
• Maggie recalled falling asleep after returning to her cabin with the woman, then waking during the shipwreck to find the woman gone and swimming toward the firelight.

Shade questioned Miss Maron about the night the Radiance Messenger sank and learned of several suspicious events aboard the ship. He then went to fish for Miss Maxim’s memories, while the god revealed that it had caught three bubbles of childhood dreams.

• Shade concluded that Miss Maron had not caused the sinking, promised to protect her, and asked whether she knew Angie Illustrious.
• Miss Maron described a disguised sailor entering the kitchen, strange patterns in the Steam Engine room, fewer casino guards, and the chief mate’s absence from the theater on the night the ship sank.
• Miss Maxim explained that most passengers had attended the lavish dinner, while Miss Maron said she wanted to be last for Shade’s memory fishing because she was not ready to reveal her past relationship.
• Shade proposed that the Captain and his accomplices had sacrificed the passengers to summon and control the Seven-Tailed Player, but the god asked him for evidence.
• The god gave Shade the Fishing Rod and Miss Maxim’s earrings, then showed him three glowing bubbles that it had caught from the dead beneath the sea.

Shade and Miss Teresa fished up objects that revealed Wayne Maxim’s childhood wishes and regrets. The third catch showed Wayne preparing to travel with Miss Teresa and revealed an ominous Tarot card.

• God showed Shade three childhood dreams and offered him a childhood dream crystal if he could lead people out of the darkness.
• Shade and Miss Teresa fished up Wayne Maxim’s notebook, and Shade gave her younger self the Mirror Fairytale she had long wished to own.
• They pulled up a severed arm and witnessed young Wayne struggle to kill a shackled creature; Miss Teresa comforted her, helping her face the moment.
• Their third catch was Miss Teresa’s rose-embroidered handkerchief, which revealed Wayne preparing for the trip to Silver Beach Island with the Royal Maids.
• Wayne drew a Tarot card showing a dragon entwined around a great ship, an image Shade recognized as abnormal.

Shade and Miss Teresa continued investigating the Radiance Messenger’s wreck and fishing people and objects from the black sea. Shade rescued Wayne Maxim, then caught a colorful feather that revealed Professor Evans’s childhood dream and a juvenile Rainbow Bird.

• Miss Teresa explained how Monica’s Strange Painting Divination Cards had revealed a Dragon entangled with a ship, and Shade concluded that the Dragon had not simply destroyed the Radiance Messenger.
• Shade and Miss Teresa fished Wayne Maxim’s living body from the sea, and Shade asked Miss Teresa to calm Miss Maxim while he prepared for another attempt.
• Shade told the deity he believed it had answered the wish of a child who did not want to die, then cast the Fishing Hook tied to Professor Evans’s ring.
• The hook caught a colorful feather, and the deity revealed the phantom of Professor Evans as a child holding it.
• Shade looked up and recognized the colorful bird above them as a juvenile Rainbow Bird, a rare creature associated with Luck and blessings.

Shade completed another thirty-minute visit to the lightless sea, helping Professor Evans recover her lost bird and fulfill her wish for Black Flame Ice Wine. Before leaving, he learned that Miss Maron wanted to live, be free, and discover her true identity, then promised Miss Teresa they would meet again.

• Shade caught Professor Evans's Rainbow Bird after Little Mia frightened it out of the sky.
• The deity taught Shade how to use his opponent's force while fishing, and he caught an empty goblet that brought back Professor Evans.
• Shade gave Professor Evans the Black Flame Ice Wine she requested, and she pointed him toward another fishing spot before disappearing.
• Shade returned the Fishing Rod to the deity as the thirty-minute visit ended.
• Miss Maron said she wanted to live, have freedom, and learn who she truly was, and Shade promised to fulfill her wish.
• Shade kissed Miss Teresa's forehead and vanished, while Miss Teresa's younger self wished he had kissed her lips.

After returning from the past, Shade consulted Miss Danist about a strange radiance in Moon Bay and a time-related Thaumaturgy he could not use. Her advice helped him partially redirect an attack, and he then set out for Moon Bay, where July snow began to fall.

• Shade told Miss Galina about his encounter with Miss Illustrious and said he planned to speak with her again in Moon Bay.
• Shade met Miss Danist at Saint Byron's Library and warned her that the Chosen One of 'Light' might appear near Moon Bay.
• Shade asked Miss Danist for help with a Thaumaturgy that reflected attacks, and she advised him to practice its traits separately.
• Shade partially turned back Miss Danist's Red Moon radiance by redirecting it, then returned home and tried to practice with Little Mia.
• Shade traveled to Moon Bay with Little Mia and saw snow falling despite it being Thunder Month.

Shade visited Sir Donald to warn him about the Bloodkin investigation and learned his theory that Moon Bay’s legends foretold a dragon’s return and the city’s destruction. Sir Donald showed him an ancient inscription, which Shade translated as a record of the Devouring Dragon’s defeat rather than the transaction Sir Donald had imagined.

• Shade found Sir Donald at the Political Economy College and warned him that the Five Gods Church was investigating Bloodkin after a prostitute was found drained of blood.
• Sir Donald said a colleague’s husband had been found dead and headless, and he believed Moon Bay’s recent crimes and strange events were legends coming true.
• Sir Donald explained his theory that the Seven Great Families had gained their enduring power through contact with an ancient being, and that many local legends predicted a dragon would return to destroy Moon Bay.
• Sir Donald showed Shade his folklore research and photographs from ancient ruins, including a stone inscription in Ancient Draconic runes.
• Shade translated the inscription and discovered that it described the Devouring Dragon’s god being defeated in Moon Bay, not the exchange of power and payment Sir Donald had inferred.

Shade learned that a photograph of ancient Draconic Runes came from an excavation in the Poisonous Swamp and traced a former researcher to Professor Tiris Manning. He then met Newman and his dockworker father, encouraging Newman to recognize the value of his father’s work and consider a stable future.

• Sir Donald told Shade that the photographed carving came from a ruin in the Poisonous Swamp and that Northern Kingdom researchers had joined the excavation.
• Sir Donald gave Shade an old business card for Professor Tiris Manning, whom Shade recognized as his friend.
• Shade visited Miss Lisa and Maria, then examined the silver anchor ornament and grew more certain about Illustrious Miss's identity.
• Shade met Laurie Anderson and Newman at the tavern and heard Laurie describe dockworkers' work and local gangs, including Princess Trading Partner.
• Shade praised Laurie’s work and urged Newman to understand the dignity and stability his father’s profession provided.

Shade learned about Eternal Light’s hierarchy, received Siris’s memory-retrieval relic and holy emblem, and visited Professor Manning to ask about an old excavation in Moon Bay. Manning recalled strange stone inscriptions that Shade suspected were connected to the Dragon Series, but he had kept no records or artifacts.

• Shade completed Illustrious Miss’s second task by explaining how adults should respond to children’s wishes, while Mr. Anderson described Eternal Light’s leadership and secrecy.
• Shade received Siris’s letter, the Forgotten Old Man holy emblem, and the Sage-level Relic Faded Memories to help recover a memory.
• Shade visited Professor Manning and asked about an excavation in Moon Bay more than ten years earlier.
• Professor Manning recalled that the excavation uncovered strange stone inscriptions that caused fear and mental strain, but said he had kept no unauthorized records or artifacts.
• After Shade mentioned the Dragon Series, Professor Manning realized the patterns he had seen might have referred to dragons.

Shade learned that Moon Bay’s harbor legends linked dragon roars to thunderstorms and found a forecast for a major offshore storm on Sunday. He spent a snowy afternoon with Miss Belinder, discussing his investigations and the Witch Council’s preparations, while her mother began wondering about their relationship.

• Professor Manning told Shade that an old boatman had heard what might have been dragons roaring in Moon Bay’s harbor during thunderstorms.
• Shade asked Luvia for Moon Bay’s weather forecast, which predicted a major thunderstorm offshore beginning Sunday at noon.
• Shade brought Little Mia to Belinder Manor, where Miss Belinder admired the Cat and examined the relic Faded Memories.
• Shade and Miss Belinder discussed his investigation into the Eternal Light organization and the Headless Serial Murder Case, then talked about preparations for the possible arrival of the Chosen One of "Light".
• Mrs. Belinder saw her daughter walking with Shade and asked Matilda what Bella thought of him.

Shade joined a card game at the Parliament Club to recover a missing memory from Herman Wood, using a Special Rule Card given to him by Countess Belinder. He dominated the early rounds, and the chapter ended as he and the other players revealed their hands for another game.

• Countess Belinder gave Shade the Fool's Story · Lightning Strike Maniac card and reminded him to obtain Herman Wood's missing memory.
• Shade explained the card's significance and promised to secure the memory while playing at the gathering.
• Shade met Baron Wood, Herman Wood, Earl Martin Eddington, and Great City Player 1850 champion Viscount Bell Gra at the Parliament Club.
• The Belinder, Eddington, and Wood Families discussed grain tariffs while Shade, Herman, and Bell Gra played cards.
• Miss Belinder learned that Herman had lost nine games and Bell Gra three, while Shade had not lost any.
• Shade held Sun 9 and Flower 8 as Herman and Bell Gra placed their hands face-down on the table.

Shade won the thirteenth round against Viscount Bell Gra and Herman Wood, then began a new Rhodes Cards match with them, wagering Special Cards. The first draw left Shade standing while Bell Gra revealed a card that could raise his hand to twenty-one points; the match remained unresolved.

• Shade revealed Sun 3 to reach twenty points, beating Bell Gra and Herman Wood and winning their final round.
• Shade told Miss Belinder that he planned to win Bell Gra’s Special Card, and she reminded him of his task for the evening.
• Shade, Bell Gra, and Herman Wood began a new match, wagering Fool's Story · Lightning Strike Maniac, Ancient Fairy Tales · Mermaid's Song, and Words of the Era · Terrarell River News.
• Belinder and the other family members added valuable prizes to the first game’s stakes, including a statue, horses, a pearl necklace, and access to the Wood family library.
• Shade drew Moon 2 and Star 13 with Flower 3 as his hole card, then stood; Herman also stopped drawing.
• Bell Gra drew a fourth card and revealed Sun 1, Modern Textile Technology, which could adjust his hand to twenty-one points if its conditions were met.

Shade won the first game against Viscount Gra and Herman Wood, then took the lead in the second game when Herman’s special card lowered Shade’s score. As the second game continued, the players and their companions added wagers, and Shade proposed further stakes for the current round before revealing his hole card.

• Viscount Gra activated a special card in the first game, but Shade’s adjusted total of 20 beat the Viscount’s 18 while Herman Wood’s adjusted score busted.
• Shade won the first game, and Miss Belinder congratulated him before refusing his offer of champagne.
• Herman Wood played a special card in the second game that reduced Shade’s even total of 18 by one, leaving Shade with 19 and securing another win.
• Miss Belinder, Earl Eddington, and Baron Wood added wagers to the second game, including a painting, winter firewood, and access to a library.
• Shade revealed his Fool’s Story · Lightning Strike Maniac card but declined to activate its effect, then proposed that he, Viscount Gra, and Herman Wood wager on the current round.

Shade won two Special Rule Cards from Viscount Gra and Herman Wood, then used a pistol relic to recover Herman's erased memory. The memory revealed a hidden prison-like section of Moon Bay City's sewers and ended with a dragon-like eye, while Miss Belinder thwarted a magical countermeasure and prepared to mislead the diviner behind it.

• Shade won Stars 7, Words of the Era · Terrarell River News from Viscount Gra and Moon 1, Ancient Fairy Tales · Mermaid's Song from Herman Wood, bringing his collection to 34 Special Rule Cards.
• Shade privately stopped Herman Wood's time and used a holy emblem to extract a memory he had lost.
• Shade, Miss Belinder, and Miss Matilda watched Herman Wood's memory, which showed Georgia Black, Freeman Hawthorne, and Herman entering a guarded, prison-like area in Moon Bay City's sewers.
• The memory ended when a door opened and a pair of bright yellow vertical pupils appeared; Miss Belinder destroyed the magical countermeasure that emerged from the image.
• Miss Belinder contained the tracking method and planned to feed false information to the opposing diviner, while Shade noted that the eye resembled that of a dragon beast.

Shade and Miss Belinder investigated clues suggesting the Dragon Devouring Order and local nobles had experimented on a dragon beast beneath Moon Bay. After returning home, Shade joined Luvia and Dorothy for an evening of stargazing and gained insight into stellar transference, while the investigation remained unresolved.

• Shade and Miss Belinder concluded that the Dragon Devouring Order may have worked with local nobles to create a dragon beast in the sewers, and agreed to investigate further.
• Shade tested the relic’s stored memory again, found it blurrier, and decided to ask Siris to restore it.
• Bella Belinder secretly watched Shade leave and used Tarot Cards to ask where he would go, drawing The Diviner.
• Shade returned home, where Luvia and Dorothy were waiting, and learned Dorothy was practicing Laguerre’s Leap so she could help him.
• Luvia, Dorothy, and Shade watched the stars on the roof, and Shade realized he had mastered part of Adele’s Regression Principle.
• Luvia and Dorothy later challenged Shade without the Youthful Immortality Leaf, but they eventually reached for it.

Shade spent a quiet Saturday at home and at Doctor Schneider’s meeting, where he learned that Priest Augustus’s mental health had improved. During Leisha’s evening lesson, Shade and Leisha affirmed their love while Angelina watched from the sidelines.

• At breakfast, Shade told Galina that Moon Bay was full of Alien Creatures and that its Chosen One might already have appeared, while Galina explained she had to meet Kasonlik’s ambassador about the Green Lake Border Conflict.
• Shade stayed in Tobesk, discussed exam week with Dorothy and Luvia, and attended Doctor Schneider’s meeting, where Schneider said Priest Augustus had improved.
• Leisha brought Angelina to the Saturday lesson and had her join a discussion of the Mermaid Princess’s persistence and the story’s changing interpretations.
• Shade described his firm personal boundaries and admitted his former hopes for a monogamous life had changed; Leisha teased him about Luvia and embraced him.
• Leisha and Shade exchanged declarations of love by the window while Angelina sat apart with the Cat.

Shade, Mr. Bernhardt, and Mr. Ptolemy Albert compared their findings and concluded that an experimental egg from a sewer laboratory may have caused the dead woman’s death and hatched into the Vampire Beast now attacking citizens. They planned to locate the laboratory and alert the Church, while learning that the Church had taken Bruce in as a suspect.

• Mr. Bernhardt revealed that he had found a secret passage from the Crowley Steam Bathhouse to riverside buildings, along with the dead woman’s blood trail leading to the Tatton River.
• Shade described Herman Wood’s recovered memories and proposed that an egg-like specimen entered the woman’s body in the sewers before she escaped into the river and drifted downstream.
• Mr. Ptolemy Albert reported that the Vampire Beast had killed four people and seriously injured one, leading the three to suspect that the egg had hatched and was growing by feeding on life.
• Mr. Bernhardt and Mr. Ptolemy Albert warned against pursuing the monster and agreed that they needed to find the secret laboratory and inform the Church.
• Mr. Bernhardt told Shade that the Church had taken Bruce away as a suspect after finding him near the crime scene and learning he sold prohibited Luku Bird eggs.

Shade asked Miss Belinder to help him investigate traces from the Fifth Epoch in the Dock Area that evening, and she agreed after warning him that the Five Gods Church and the Dragon Devouring Order were both active there. Before they set out, Shade accompanied her to a noblewomen’s salon, where Miss Belinder’s divination led her to suspect that Princess Margaret Anjou had taken an interest in him.

• Shade and Mr. Bernhardt paused their investigation until Shade could obtain a map of the sewers near the Steam Bathhouse, and Mr. Bernhardt shared rumors about Viscount Gra cheating at cards.
• Shade reported his findings to Miss Belinder, who asked him to bring evidence of Georgia Black’s ties to the secret laboratory and promised a sewer map on Monday.
• Miss Belinder used Tarot Cards to advise Shade to be careful, then agreed to accompany him to the Dock Area that evening after mentioning the Church and Dragon Devouring Order’s activity there.
• Shade agreed to attend Marquise Ankara’s salon with Miss Belinder so he could meet the last person on his Bloodkin friend’s list, and she connected the woman’s identity to the werewolf they had discussed.
• After Matilda remarked on Shade’s unusually fine formalwear, Miss Belinder divined that Princess Margaret was connected to it and concluded that Emma and Vanessa had introduced Shade to the princess.

At Marquise Ankara's Literary Salon, Shade warned Mrs. Dubois that Bloodkin were under suspicion and learned how Mr. Alber's teaching career had ended after a false rumor sparked a student protest. The salon's guests discussed fashionable stockings, and Miss Belinder revealed she had obtained superior goods through her connection to Princess Margaret.

• Shade warned Mrs. Dubois that a suspected Bloodkin killing and a Vampire Beast had drawn the Church's attention, and she asked him to deliver a letter to Mr. Alber about herbs arriving at the docks.
• Mrs. Dubois told Shade how Mr. Alber had supported a student protest after a female student disappeared, then left teaching when the student returned from a family trip and the rumors died down.
• Shade rejoined Miss Belinder at the salon and concealed his worry about the approaching storm and whether he might need to spend divinity that night.
• The salon guests discussed the sudden popularity of Chemical Fiber stockings, which had sold out in Weilun Dai'er City.
• Miss Belinder said the Belinder Family's ties to Princess Margaret had helped her obtain superior goods, then sent her maid to fetch the boxes.

Shade and Miss Belinder confronted Marquise Ankara about her inherited werewolf bloodline and her connection to Marika Frost. The Marquise revealed that Marika had disappeared after enduring family deaths and growing increasingly isolated.

• At the salon, Shade and Miss Belinder presented Sylvia’s fabric goods to the noblewomen, and Shade admitted he had seen them at Miss Sylvia’s place.
• Miss Belinder took Shade and Marquise Ankara to a study to discuss the werewolf family, where Shade revealed he was a Ring Arcanist and had investigated Marika Frost’s ancestry.
• Shade told Marquise Ankara that her maternal grandmother had been a Frost, and threatened to expose her recessive werewolf bloodline; Miss Belinder then comforted the sobbing Marquise.
• Marquise Ankara explained that she and Marika Frost shared a great-grandfather and had stayed in contact after meeting as adults.
• Marquise Ankara said Marika withdrew after her father died by suicide and her husband died of illness, and had already been missing for a long time when she went to visit her.

Shade and Bella Belinder learned that the wraith controlling Marika Frost resembled her late husband’s grandfather, while Marquise Ankara agreed to help them investigate the Wolson family belongings. Shade then uncovered an abandoned underground passage and evidence of the Dragon Devouring Order’s earlier experiments beneath the Ankara estate.

• Marquise Ankara identified the wraith as resembling Jason Wolson’s grandfather, a lumberyard manager, and confirmed that Jason had been the Wolson family’s last descendant.
• Marquise Ankara agreed to let Shade and Bella investigate Marika’s belongings and asked Bella for help with a separate strange occurrence; she also bargained for fabric in exchange for confidential information about her husband and the King’s orders.
• Marquise Ankara explained that her estate had experienced brief nighttime tremors since winter, prompting Shade to investigate its underground spaces.
• Shade broke through the Root Cellar’s eastern wall and found a secret passage leading to Moon Bay City’s sewers, where he discovered old bloodstains and an abandoned underground laboratory.
• Shade concluded that the Dragon Devouring Order had conducted illegal biological experiments in Moon Bay long before its recent search for Chosen Ones.

Shade prepared for a dangerous night in Moon Bay and gained an idea for using Adele's Regression Principle after watching Little Mia deflect sparks with her tail. At the Clock Tower, Miss Belinder told him that three dragons were flying toward Moon Bay Wharf and the city was under curfew.

• The Marquise refused to let the Church search her house, and Miss Belinder agreed to investigate Shade's discovery underground herself.
• Shade returned home, prepared relics, and realized Little Mia's turn and tail flick might inspire a way to reverse an attack through a casting medium.
• Shade left Little Mia behind, packed the Night Watchman and Dragon Scale Sword, and headed out into a sudden storm.
• Shade met Miss Belinder at Belinder Big Ben, where she explained that the citywide curfew was imposed because three dragons were approaching Moon Bay Wharf from the Outer Sea.

Shade and Bella Belinder prepared to search Moon Bay’s waters for traces of an ancient divine war as three dragons approached during a storm. They expected the Dragon Devouring Order and the Church to clash at the wharf, and Bella insisted on joining Shade despite the danger.

• Shade learned that three dragons were advancing toward Moon Bay and that the Church had prepared its forces for a confrontation at the wharf.
• Bella Belinder insisted on accompanying Shade, and she told him that recurring nightmares of a beautiful woman’s eyes had been troubling her.
• Shade and Bella traveled through the storm to the Dock Area, avoided the Church’s rituals, and sheltered in an unlit tavern.
• Shade revealed that he was searching for traces of an ancient battle between the Ocean Gods and the Dragon Devouring Demon, which appeared only during thunderstorms.
• Shade expected the Dragon Devouring Order to arrive and planned to search the sea after the dragons and Church began fighting, but Bella grew angry when he told her to leave if danger arose.