Chapter Summaries

Emilia was haunted by the Document Level Relic Glimmer Ghost Shadow, so Shade, Dorothy, and Luvia helped her destroy it. The danger passed, and Emilia admitted this was the second dangerous relic she had encountered that week.

• Emilia told Luvia and Dorothy that ghostly shadows had appeared around her room after she returned from meeting a witness with Mr. Rio Enxi Er and Miss Matilla Delas.
• Shade sensed weak Whisper Element concentrated around Emilia, and Dorothy identified the phenomenon as the contagious Glimmer Ghost Shadow relic.
• Dorothy explained that the shadow would become dangerous in darkness and that they had to extinguish the lights to destroy it when it attacked.
• Dorothy darkened the room, and the ghostly shadow appeared before Emilia while Shade and Little Mia drove it back with moonlight and sparks.
• Luvia restrained the shadow, and Dorothy shattered it with the power of Red Butterflies before Luvia restored the light.
• Emilia checked that the room was safe and told Shade that this was the second dangerous relic she had encountered that week.

Shade turned into a Dragon and could not change back, but Emilia identified a remedy using an elf potion and a Youthful Immortality Leaf. After returning to human form, Shade reassured Dorothy and Luvia that he felt well and explained the events at Moon Bay.

• Shade told Emilia, Dorothy, and Luvia that he had transformed into a Dragon and could not return to human form.
• Emilia explained that a special potion used with a Youthful Immortality Leaf could reverse the failed transformation, and Dorothy and Luvia provided the leaf while Emilia obtained the potion.
• Luvia asked Dorothy to photograph Shade in Dragon form on Green Island before they returned home.
• Shade swallowed the potion while chewing the leaf, transformed back into a human, and reunited with Little Mia.
• Dorothy asked Shade about Moon Bay and his condition, and Shade said he felt fine and showed his new Spirit Runes.

Shade reassured Luvia and Dorothy that he was recovering, though he still could not safely transform into a dragon, and explained the time-related Thaumaturgy he had learned. On Monday morning, he left for Moon Bay with Little Mia while Emilia stayed with Luvia and Dorothy to investigate the problem affecting her.

• Shade told Luvia and Dorothy he would seek Grace and Helen's advice in Miburg before risking another dragon transformation, and described how his new Thaumaturgy let him deflect energy attacks with a sword while airborne.
• Luvia and Dorothy teased Shade about carrying Bella Belinder on his back as a dragon, then spent the night with him while Emilia slept uneasily in the side bedroom.
• Emilia woke embarrassed by her dreams and joined Shade, Luvia, and Dorothy for breakfast; Shade asked her to stay with the women while he checked on the friend who had helped him.
• Luvia offered Emilia God's Gift Box, and Emilia received a cat-patterned yellow scarf along with a task to try different outfits on at least three days that week.
• Shade took Little Mia through the Dragon Nest cave toward Moon Bay, while Emilia remained with Luvia and Dorothy to look into her problem.

After returning to human form from the Moonlight Dragon, Shade visited Bella Belinder and explained the transformation and the Church’s response to the battle at the docks. Bella pressed him about his secrets, and he revealed that Night Watchman was an Angel Level Relic and that his ties to Miss Benanis and Siris were more than those of Followers, leaving their relationship closer but his God Summoner identity unconfirmed.

• Shade entered Moon Bay amid heightened police patrols and nervous rumors that a Dragon’s appearance heralded the city’s destruction.
• Shade arrived at Belinder Manor in human form, reassuring Bella that he had recovered and explaining that an Elf Secret Potion had reversed his Transformation Spell.
• Bella told Shade that the Church had named the Dragon the Moonlight Dragon and was investigating the battle and the cultists’ actions at the docks.
• Shade explained that his powerful Dragon form had been a one-time result of what he and the cultists sought, then gave Bella a photograph that showed the Dragon in an unfamiliar place.
• Bella asked whether Shade was a God Summoner and what he had concealed; he confirmed that Night Watchman was an Angel Level Relic and that his relationships with Miss Benanis and Siris were not merely those of Followers.
• Shade showed Bella his unusually large Destiny Ring and maintained that he was only Seven Rings.

Shade discussed the prophecy threatening Moon Bay with Bella Belinder, then attended a City Council meeting where the Seven Families agreed to gather. He postponed his sewer exploration with Armand Bernhardt and left open the possibility that his Moonlight Dragon could still be tied to the city's destruction.

• Shade told Bella Belinder that factions would react to the Moonlight Dragon and the new Chosen One rumors, while she said the Belinder Family trusted the Wood Family and expected Moon Bay to face destruction.
• Bella warned Shade to avoid the sewers while the Church searched for Dragon Devouring Order cultists, then brought him to the City Council meeting as her clerk.
• Earl Martin Eddington, Earl Leonard Hawthorne, and Bella agreed to hold a banquet on Thursday to discuss protecting Moon Bay, and Bella invited Shade to attend as her dance partner.
• Bella told Shade that Wilundell was pressuring Moon Bay and that Gray-headed Eagle might be in the city; Shade admitted he knew the assassin as a colleague.
• Shade met Armand Bernhardt at Spider Inn, postponed their sewer exploration until the next day, and confirmed that he had witnessed the battle and the Moonlight Dragon's appearance.
• Shade reassured Armand that the Moonlight Dragon had protected Moon Bay, but privately acknowledged that he could not rule out the Dragon eventually destroying the city.

Shade and the others investigated the objects bringing misfortune to Emilia, while Shade received a possible future assignment from Director Anlos to locate a missing deep-cover operative. The objects remained unexplained, and Shade awaited word on whether he would need to investigate the operative.

• Shade left Mrs. Dubois's letter in Tolomay Alber's office at the morgue.
• Emilia, Luvia, and Dorothy showed Shade a die, a leaf bookmark, and a brooch from Emilia's room; Shade found Blasphemy Elements in the first two and a Whisper Element in the brooch.
• Luvia divined that all three objects were accumulating misfortune for Emilia, and Shade planned to investigate them with Old Dad John.
• Director Anlos told Shade that Gray Gloves planned to stir up protests over the Moon Bay Bridge and that Moon Bay's political stability mattered amid the threat of war.
• Director Anlos asked Shade to memorize information about a missing Bottom Fish and possibly investigate whether the operative was alive or dead if Sixth Office could not find him.

Shade took Emilia to Priest Augustus after Old Dad John’s pawnshop was closed, and the priest discovered that a curse of misfortune from Mr. Misfortune’s cultists had targeted her. Shade left with three urgent tasks: investigate her brooch, seek help from the Seer Association, and find the cultists before they could harm her.

• Shade took Emilia to Dawn Church and asked Priest Augustus to examine three suspicious items after Old Dad John was unavailable.
• Priest Augustus identified Blasphemy Elements in the bookmark and dice, and found that the brooch was bone plated with silver and contained Whisper Element.
• Shade crushed the dice and found a parchment scrap inside bearing the holy emblem of Mr. Misfortune.
• Priest Augustus concluded that Mr. Misfortune’s cultists had cursed Emilia and that the curse explained her string of encounters with Relics.
• Priest Augustus told Shade to take Emilia to Mr. Corps, seek help from the Seer Association, and find the cultists near her.
• Emilia asked Shade whether they could keep the matter from the Academy, and Shade agreed.

Shade and Emilia visited Mr. Corps to identify the cursed brooch, then used an ambush by the Misfortune Order to draw their attackers into the woods. The chapter ended with Shade and Emilia unharmed behind the masked six-ring Arcanist, ready to fight.

• Shade brought Emilia to the Unnamed Cemetery, where Mr. Corps identified her brooch as a Ghost Bone Tree Mark that caused misfortune and death.
• Mr. Corps explained that Oak's Lucky Potion could lift the brooch's curse, and Shade left reassured that Old John could obtain it.
• A flock of Crows attacked Shade and Emilia in the woods, and Shade used the Flying Blossom Spell before leading them deeper into the forest.
• A six-ring Arcanist wearing a Clown mask attacked them with ghosts, but Shade and Emilia vanished from the black fog.
• Shade appeared behind the masked Arcanist as Emilia drew her sword, and the two prepared to fight.

Shade and the Academy’s allies captured two cultists who had targeted Emilia, and the Academy ordered her to stay at Shade’s home while it decided what to do next. Shade grew uneasy when Emilia took her luggage upstairs alone, and Luvia’s divination suggested the misfortune might not be over.

• Shade defeated the masked Ring Arcanist, and Rio Enshir and Matila Delas returned with the fleeing cultist while Emilia recognized him as the man who had sold her a metal die.
• Luvia, Shalina Muris, and other Ring Arcanists arrived with a second masked cultist, and the search of the area found no third accomplice.
• Shalina Muris asked Shade and Luvia to look after Emilia, and told Emilia to remain with Shade until the Academy issued its plans.
• Shade and Luvia brought Emilia to the Three Cats Hotel to collect her belongings, and Emilia went upstairs alone while they waited downstairs.
• Shade voiced doubts about the attack and Emilia’s earlier nightmares, so Luvia consulted her Tarot Cards and agreed they should go upstairs to investigate.

Shade and Luvia discovered that the Friendly Neighbor relic had created a false neighboring room beside Emilia’s, and Shade’s moonlit strike made the family inside vanish. The relic then engulfed the street in darkness, leaving Shade, Luvia, and Emilia facing its spatial powers.

• Shade and Luvia searched Emilia’s room and corridor after sensing that something was wrong at the hotel.
• Luvia realized Emilia’s supposed neighbors could not exist because her room was at the end of the corridor, and her memory of the room’s layout returned.
• Shade summoned the Goodmans, and the family and their dog appeared in a dark room behind a door that had emerged from the corridor.
• Shade struck the family with Silver Moon, making them disappear, then used Space Movement to take Luvia and Emilia outside the hotel.
• Friendly Neighbor covered the hotel and street in darkness, and Luvia warned Shade that the relic’s domain had spatial abilities.

Shade fought the Friendly Neighbor while Luvia and Emilia searched the dark version of the Three Cats Inn for the door that could drive the monster away. The fight escalated when Mrs. Goodman emerged with a human-bone greatsword, and Shade countered her powerful strike with Adele's Regression Principle.

• Mr. Goodman's giant head descended over the street, and Shade pinned its tongue to the ground with the Black Key transformed into a staff before slashing its face.
• Luvia divined that they had to destroy a door in the illusory dark world, then entered the Three Cats Inn with Emilia to find it while Shade held off the monster.
• Luvia led Emilia through the inn to its highest floor, where they found a single door and watched Shade battle the Friendly Neighbor outside.
• Shade severed one of the Friendly Neighbor's arms, but the monster regenerated several arms and attacked him with tongues and tentacles.
• Mrs. Goodman crawled from the giant head wielding a human-bone greatsword, and Shade met her immense descending strike with Adele's Regression Principle.

Luvia and Emilia entered the Friendly Neighbor relic’s imagined home and watched its Goodmans’ resentment grow increasingly monstrous. The relic drew them into a false memory of being the Hamilton family, where Luvia resisted the Goodmans’ invitation and warned that the household’s master would punish them for leaving.

• While Shade fought the Friendly Neighbor outside, Luvia taught Emilia about curse-type relics and guided her through writing a ritual in Ancient A'Fuwens.
• Luvia opened the door, and she and Emilia entered a sunlit apartment where Mr. Goodman and Mrs. Goodman reenacted their growing hostility toward new neighbors.
• As the apartment darkened through successive scenes, the Goodmans’ conversation and surroundings became increasingly grotesque, until Emilia and Luvia found themselves at 6 Saint Derain Square.
• Mr. Goodman and Mrs. Goodman invited Luvia, addressed as Mrs. Hamilton, and Emilia to their home, but Luvia asked whether they could bring their cat and the other women in the household.
• After Mrs. Goodman returned injured from trying to invite Grace White and Helen Black, Luvia refused to leave without the absent Mr. Hamilton and said he punished the women who disobeyed him.

Shade, Luvia, and Emilia escaped the relic’s illusion, and the Red Butterfly twins destroyed the Goodman couple. Back at 6 Saint Derain Square, Emilia settled in for the night with Luvia, still shaken by the dangers beyond the Academy.

• Luvia’s ritual held off the Goodman couple until Shade appeared, and Emilia remembered that the scene around them was an illusion.
• The Goodman couple fled into the fog, where the Red Butterfly twins and their swarm of butterflies destroyed them.
• Shade greeted Grace and Helen, who said they had driven the couple out of the city, and Helen startled Emilia by turning her ear into an elf’s pointed ear.
• Shade, Luvia, and Emilia returned home, where Shade carried Emilia’s luggage and Little Mia welcomed them.
• Emilia asked to share Luvia’s room because she was frightened, and later asked whether dangerous relics were common outside the Academy.

Luvia comforted Emilia during the night, and the next morning Shade and Luvia arranged for Emilia to stay safely at home while Iluna investigated the Cult of the God of Misfortune. Shade left to explore the sewers with Mr. Bernhardt, leaving Emilia with books to read and Little Mia to feed.

• Luvia reassured Emilia that Shade's home was safe and told her the nighttime sounds came from Little Mia patrolling or sharpening her claws.
• Emilia fell asleep beside Luvia, while a silver arm brushed Shade's cheek and Little Mia curled up next to him.
• Luvia woke Emilia early, and Emilia helped prepare breakfast before Shade returned with Iluna.
• Shade and Iluna discussed the cultists, the missing Apothecary, and how Iluna would finish her investigation after Emilia left Tobesk.
• Shade gave Iluna Emilia's three problematic items to hold as evidence, then left with Mr. Bernhardt to explore the sewers and asked Emilia to feed Little Mia.

Iluna and Emilia compared clues about the Misfortune Order’s relics, while Shade visited Miss Belinder and learned that several Great Families possessed different kinds of Dragon scales. Shade planned to investigate the Steam Bathhouse sewers with a friend, while the search for the remaining scales continued.

• Iluna asked Emilia about Shade’s black staff, and Emilia agreed to investigate whether it might be connected to the elves.
• Iluna remembered If’s five clues—“Flame, power, resurrection, cards, love”—while Little Mia watched her from the desk.
• Shade visited Miss Belinder, who told him Marika Frost had joined her household and that the ghost tied to Marika’s family tree had revealed secrets about the Wood Family.
• Miss Belinder reported that Belinder possessed a Golden Dragon Scale, the Wood Family’s was likely a Green Dragon Scale, Light had a White Dragon Scale, and Hawthorne’s seemed related to a Brass Dragon.
• Miss Belinder gave Shade sewer blueprints near the Steam Bathhouse, and Shade planned to investigate with a reliable friend before returning for dinner.

Shade and Mr. Bernhardt searched Moon Bay City's sewers for clues linking the Crowley Steam Bathhouse to a secret laboratory. Their search finally uncovered signs of a powerful resentful spirit, and they prepared to follow its trail.

• Shade and Mr. Bernhardt entered the secret passage beneath the Crowley Steam Bathhouse and inspected the route toward the Tatton River.
• They checked a barred gate leading deeper into the sewers, found no traces beyond it, and continued along the secret passage.
• Mr. Bernhardt told Shade several sewer legends, including rumors of buried treasure and a cursed foreign Prince.
• After finding no clues in the morning, Shade visited home at noon and learned that the Elf Girl had gone to buy Oak's Lucky Potion.
• Shade and Mr. Bernhardt resumed their search that afternoon and detected strong resentment and traces of souls in a sewer branch.
• Mr. Bernhardt identified the resentful spirit's scent and led Shade onward, despite gagging at the sewer's stench.

Shade and Mr. Bernhardt followed a resentful spirit to a hidden passage, where they fought a hybrid monster created from human, Bloodkin, and dragon blood. After discovering the spirit was a small black cat, Shade learned it had led them there because it wanted their help.

• Shade and Mr. Bernhardt found and broke through a concealed wall, then followed a corpse-marked passage into a prison-like area.
• Mr. Bernhardt revealed his true Bloodkin form as they searched the cells, while Shade spotted a monster preparing to attack.
• Shade evaded the monster and struck it with a Thunder Spear, then Mr. Bernhardt defeated it and stopped its body from exploding by removing its scaled heart.
• Shade cut off the monster’s severed head when it tried to attack Mr. Bernhardt, and Mr. Bernhardt identified it as a hybrid experiment tied to the Dragon Devouring Order.
• Shade and Mr. Bernhardt discovered that the resentful spirit was a small black cat, which spoke and asked them to help it in return for leading them to the passage.

Shade and Mr. Bernhardt helped a powerful vengeful cat spirit leave the sewers to find its former owner, Jeanette Denver. After tracking her family to their home, the cat recalled their life together and revealed that it had been struck by a carriage and died while out walking.

• The cat explained that its corpse in the sewers bound it there, and Shade and Mr. Bernhardt agreed to help it reach someone aboveground.
• Shade and Mr. Bernhardt found the cat’s remains beneath stones and learned that it wanted to see its former owner, Jeanette Denver.
• The cat led them to 16 Martyr Alley, where they learned the Denver family had moved twelve years earlier.
• They traveled to Number 9 Williamte Avenue and waited outside the locked home, while the cat told them about growing up with Jeanette.
• The cat recalled that Jeanette had promised it would always stay by her side, then explained that it died after going out for a walk.

Shade and Mr. Bernhardt helped the black cat reunite with Little Jeanette, who was now a grown woman, and the cat used its remaining strength to heal her before saying goodbye. As the cat neared its end, it warned them about powerful monsters in the sewers and revealed a mysterious verse; Shade then opened a rift that seemed to connect the sea at sunset with a world of black water and a Silver Moon.

• The black cat recognized Little Jeanette and ran to reunite with her after more than twenty years apart.
• Mr. Bernhardt sensed that Little Jeanette had a terminal illness, and the black cat spent its strength healing her before saying goodbye and disappearing down the street.
• Shade carried the weakened cat to the pier, where it warned that monsters were being made with a strange scale in distant sewers and that the strongest one had escaped inside a woman.
• The black cat shared a suspected verse from the Poem Chapter Fragment: “The Dragon is not important. What matters is justice, and the one who draws the sword shall also uphold justice.”
• As the cat neared its end, Shade stepped onto the sea and opened a rift showing a black-water mudflat and a half-submerged Silver Moon, which seemed to merge with the setting Sun.

Shade helped a resentful spirit cat reunite with its mother and pass on, then shared the story with Miss Belinder over dinner. He and Miss Belinder concluded that someone among the Seven Great Families may have supplied dragon scales to the Dragon Devouring Order, and Shade planned to investigate the sewers again with Mr. Bernhardt.

• Shade helped the spirit cat reach its mother across the sea, and the two cats departed toward the setting Sun.
• Mr. Bernhardt asked Shade to help him pass on if he ever became a resentful spirit, and Shade agreed before they left the docks.
• Shade went to Miss Belinder's manor, where he told her and the maids how he had helped the cat.
• Miss Belinder praised Shade's smile, and Shade explained that he had helped the cat because it was his justice.
• Shade and Miss Belinder discussed the Dragon Devouring Order's use of dragon scales and suspected that someone among the Seven Great Families was cooperating with it.
• Shade told Miss Belinder that he and Mr. Bernhardt would search the sewers again the next day and inform The Church if they found no clues.