Chapter Summaries

Shade summoned Past Adele Isabella to help Flora Winslet and Adele Isabella escape a time rift filled with an Ancient Evil Being. The witches reached the corridor, but they needed to lure the creature back into Vesta Woodland rather than trap it near the Council.

• Past Adele Isabella explained that memories of earlier Adele Isabellas had appeared in her dreams, then warned Shade to stay out of sight of Adele Isabella.
• Inside the time rift, Flora Winslet and Adele Isabella heard knocking and learned from Charlotte Bell that the Time Fog threatened to drag the whole city into a rift.
• Adele Isabella used her signature to reveal the door, and Shade and Past Adele opened it and struck the pursuing creature with the Return to Original Nature Principle.
• Flora Winslet and Adele Isabella fought their way out of the room and into the corridor, while the creature pursued them.
• Adele Isabella refused to enter the Council and said they had to lure the insect back into Vesta Woodland.

Flora Winslet escaped the fog-filled corridor with help from one Adele Isabella, only to find a second Adele waiting outside Room 321. The two Adeles joined forces against the Paradox Worm, which broke through their time magic and attacked the city's defenses above the Golden Music Hall.

• Flora Winslet followed Adele Isabella through the corridor's left path and emerged in the 1854 Accordion Hotel hallway with Charlotte Bell.
• A second Adele Isabella arrived, and both Adeles claimed they might have come from different times; the first produced Flora's genuine ring as evidence.
• The two Adeles teleported away with the Paradox Worm, while Shade reunited with Flora, Danist Gustav, and Charlotte and identified the creature as the Paradox Worm.
• Above the city, the worm broke free of the Adeles' interlocking clock-face spell and flew toward the Golden Music Hall.
• Three High-Ring Arcanists tried to stop the worm, but their Thaumaturgies passed through it, and the creature shattered the city's aerial Defense Ritual.

Shade and a blonde elf used the Antique Arrow to unleash a new thaumaturgy against the Paradox Worm above Vesta City. They destroyed its monstrous form, and the elf left Shade with the pierced shell before returning to her Tree House.

• Adele warned Shade that ordinary attacks could not contain or kill the Paradox Worm, while her Sigh of the End of Days turned much of its carapace gray.
• The worm spread White Fog across Vesta City, and one wisp reduced a building to dust before the witches and Ring Arcanists could stop the danger.
• The blonde elf arrived, took the Antique Arrow and Shade's Star Mark bow, then flew with him into the sky to shoot at the worm.
• Shade and the elf manifested the World Tree and mastered the thaumaturgy Ancient Elven Stability Principle as they fired the arrow together.
• The arrow pierced the Paradox Worm, which spun apart and collapsed into a small black shell as most of the White Fog vanished.
• The elf caught the returning arrow, left the pierced shell with Shade, and said she was returning to her Tree House.

Adele Isabella met her future self, who gave her cryptic reminders before returning to her own time. Back at the hotel, Adele explained how a failed attempt to break Flora’s time curse caused a paradox and summoned the Paradox Worm, while the group began sorting out what had happened.

• Adele Isabella and her future self flew to a secluded woodland, where the future Adele gave her reminders and warned her not to act unnecessarily.
• The future Adele vanished, and Adele later returned to Room 317 at the Accordion Hotel to join Miss Danist, Miss Winslet, and Miss Bell.
• Adele reported that the White Fog had nearly dispersed and said the local Church would investigate, but it did not suspect the hotel.
• Miss Winslet explained that she had tried to remove Flora’s curse by making her skip a second during time travel, but the cabinet’s activation sent Flora and Danist into the past and trapped them in the Interstice.
• Miss Isabella explained that Flora’s time curse and the paradox created by Miss Winslet’s spell had produced the Paradox Worm, which she and her future self had driven away.

Adele Isabella and the others discussed the Paradox Worm, the mysterious stronger version of Adele, and ways to address Daniste’s worsening Time Curse. After Adele left to deal with Redeemer’s Elegy, Shade asked Daniste to arrange a visit to Emilia at Saint Byron’s.

• Miss Isabella reasoned that a Paradox Worm was likely involved in the Kaming family’s time paradox and asked Flora and Daniste to find the young lady who had acted that day.
• Miss Isabella said the other Adele seemed far stronger than her and might be a demigod, but she could not determine whether that version came from her future.
• Miss Isabella examined Daniste’s worsening curse, heard her account of returning to 1854, and gave her a pocket watch so she could track Daniste across time.
• Miss Isabella gave Daniste and Flora advice about relics that might counter the Time Curse, then left after dinner to address Redeemer’s Elegy and arrange support for Creekwood Town.
• Shade asked Daniste to arrange for him to project himself to Saint Byron’s and speak with Emilia.

Shade and his companions investigated the Time Curse and sought information about Paradox Worms from Emilia and the Moon Creek Clan. After Miss Winslet reassured them that Galina was safe, Shade insisted he did not know the elf who had appeared in the woods, though Miss Winslet suspected she might be the Chosen One of Time.

• Miss Winslet arranged for Miss Bell to tell Galina that Shade would return later, then questioned Shade about the two Speakers and the elf.
• Shade listed five rules about time travel, the Time Curse, and Paradox Worms, and discussed how That Lady may have used a Time Capsule to store the curse.
• Miss Danist explained that That Lady had used a one-use Sage Level Relic in 1821, but storing away the curse would have prevented her from driving it out.
• Shade contacted Emilia, who said the Moon Creek Clan knew that Paradox Worms could be countered with the Power to Smooth Time, potions, or relics, and agreed to seek detailed information from her clan's Elders.
• Miss Winslet reported that Galina was worried but relieved Shade was all right, while Shade claimed he did not know the elf and Miss Winslet wondered if she was the Chosen One of Time.

Shade reunited with Vanessa after she arrived in Tobesk, told her and Galina about the events in Creekwood Town, and learned that Vanessa and the Golden Dawn Opera Troupe would stay at Duke of Rhode’s manor. After the others left them alone, Vanessa joined Shade at home and spent the night with him.

• Shade showed Miss Winslet and Miss Danist the pocket watch connected to Adele Isabella and asked them not to press him for details.
• Shade returned home, where Vanessa, Galina, and Siris were waiting, and told them about the Ancient Evil Being and the Adele Isabella who had appeared in Creekwood Town.
• Vanessa and Siris said the Golden Dawn Opera Troupe would stay at Duke of Rhode’s manor at 19 Dinier Street for the autumn.
• Galina and Siris left Shade and Vanessa alone, and Vanessa told Shade she wanted to stay in his home and enjoy the view he saw every day.
• Vanessa challenged Shade to match her passion, kept her Moonlight Ring on, and began kissing him in his bedroom.

Shade spent the night with Vanessa, then visited the Elf Girl at the Tree House for breakfast to ask about the Paradox Worms and the Time Curse. She offered to make a potion to ease the curse if Shade brought her breakfast daily, and revealed that the Golden Music Hall had once been a temple to the Ancient God, Father of Infinite Tree.

• Vanessa teased Shade about using the Traceless Piercing Spell with their engagement ring, but Shade tied her hair with the rings instead.
• Vanessa joined Siris, Tifa, Luvia, and Galina for breakfast after Shade left for Vesta Woodland.
• Shade found the Elf Girl at the Tree House and shared a lavish breakfast with her and Little Mia.
• The Elf Girl explained that Paradox Worm shells could be used to make Confession of Time's Sins, a potion that could ease the Time Curse on the red-haired girl, in exchange for Shade bringing her breakfast each day.
• The Elf Girl told Shade that a Youthful Immortality Leaf could reveal Paradox Worms, while his Yggdrasil Staff could serve as World Tree material for the Ancient Elven Stability Principle.
• The Elf Girl revealed that the Golden Music Hall had once been a Temple dedicated to the Ancient God, Father of Infinite Tree.

Shade learned that arrows made from World Tree Branches had been removed from the Old Sun Temple during renovations and decided to investigate the workers and a history professor connected to the project. At the Accordion Hotel, the group tested relics that could restrain time powers and isolate dangerous tree holes, then prepared to deal with James Kaming’s contact with Erica Kaming from the past.

• Elf Miss told Shade that antiques, including World Tree Branch arrows, had been taken from the Old Sun Temple during renovations half a century earlier and suggested he investigate a history professor who documented the site.
• Shade left the forest with Little Mia and joined Miss Danist and Miss Winslet at the Accordion Hotel, where they showed him the Worm Ring sent by the Speaker.
• Miss Danist wore the Worm Ring and found it interfered with Shade’s time powers, but Shade successfully froze her in time using Adele’s Time Stop Thaumaturgy.
• Shade told the women that Paradox Worm potions could slow the Time Curse, and Miss Danist and Miss Isabella supplied relics to isolate the cabinet and door tree holes.
• Shade proposed that the group settle the matter of James Kaming contacting Erica Kaming from the past that day.

Shade spent a relaxed morning reviewing documents with Miss Winslet and Miss Danist, then visited Old John to discuss the Tree Hollows and the Hermits of the Forest. After searching Yodel Palace for Leisha, he found Princess Angelina in her studio and arranged a private moment with her.

• Miss Winslet told Shade to wait for Flora's investigation into the Kaming Family before acting against James Kaming, and urged him to rest.
• Shade spent the morning reading and talking with Miss Winslet and Miss Danist, and learned they would attend a Golden Music Hall concert together on Sunday.
• Shade visited Old John, who suspected the Hermits of the Forest were deeply involved with the Tree Hollows and gave Shade a letter requesting their assistance.
• Shade returned home briefly, then went to Yodel Palace to look for Leisha but found Princess Angelina painting with Angelina instead.
• Angelina dismissed the other people from the studio after Shade, disguised as a cat, approached her.

Shade spent time with Angelina and attended a dinner with Galina, Vanessa, and their companions, while Leisha gave him the Saint's Unbinding Stone. The stone did little to help with Flora and Miss Danist's Time Curse, but their investigation into the two related noblewomen uncovered a strange adoption in Creekwood Town.

• Shade let Angelina paint his cat form until Galina came to collect him, then joined her and Angelina for dinner at Rod Manor.
• Leisha gave Shade the Saint's Unbinding Stone, and she later took Angelina to explain advanced matters about Shade and the witches.
• Vanessa left early for Golden Dawn Opera Troupe preparations, while Shade asked her to have Margaret investigate who renovated the Hilltop Temple in Creekwood Town.
• Shade tested the Saint's Unbinding Stone on Flora and Miss Danist, but it had little effect on their Time Curse.
• Miss Danist and Flora reported that Mrs. Bennett and Baroness Kaming had been born sisters, and Gray Gloves' records showed Baroness Kaming had supposedly been found in the woods by her adoptive parents.

Shade and the three ladies investigated the Kaming family’s history and used Baroness Kaming’s infant memories to identify Kane Kaming as the man who abducted her. They assembled a timeline suggesting that Kane had traveled through time, but his motives and knowledge remained unknown.

• Miss Winslet explained that the Baroness had been found in the woods on the same day Mrs. Bennett’s one-year-old sibling disappeared in 1809.
• Miss Danist and Miss Bell extracted and restored images from the Baroness’s early memories, revealing a man at the nursery window.
• Shade recognized the restored face as resembling James Kaming, but Miss Winslet identified the man as Kane Kaming.
• Shade and the ladies concluded that Kane had a Time Curse and might have learned about time travel from the Tree Hollow book once owned by his mother and later by James.
• Miss Bell and the others laid out the family timeline, including Kane’s suspected journey to 1809, the Baroness’s abduction, and James Kaming’s later time travel to meet Erica.

Shade and Miss Winslet investigated Baron Kaming’s disappearance after he vanished in the Old Town. Miss Winslet detected traces of living people in Lovegood Lane and called Shade back to follow them.

• Shade chose to investigate Baron Kaming first because Little Kaming’s involvement with Erica remained uncertain.
• Miss Bell reported that Baron Kaming had disappeared after getting out of a carriage near Lovegood Lane.
• Shade and Miss Winslet flew to Lovegood Lane while Charlotte Bell’s group went to watch over James Kaming.
• Shade found no useful traces with his spells, so Miss Winslet used a Witch Secret Art to search for signs of life.
• Miss Winslet found traces in the alley and told Shade to follow her.

Shade and Miss Winslet tracked Baron Kaming to a house where signs suggested he had used the Power of Time to travel to the past, then followed him to Maurice Mansion. Shade confronted the Baron, but the Baron began disappearing into a time passage and dragged Shade along with him toward 1802.

• Shade and Miss Winslet found Baron Kaming’s footprints leading to a room where Shade’s Echoes of the Past spell revealed signs of the Power of Time.
• Shade deduced that Baron Kaming may have traveled to the past by returning to a place where he had once stayed, and the Baron later reappeared near the time-travel book in Maurice Mansion.
• Miss Bell reported that Baron Kaming dug a box out of the woods and returned with it to Maurice Mansion.
• Shade and Miss Winslet went to the mansion, where Shade surprised the Baron in his study as the Baron waited with the box for an unknown contact.
• The Baron began turning transparent and traveling toward 1802, and Shade’s hand became transparent as he was pulled after him.

Shade and Miss Winslet followed Baron Kaming through a distorted passage to 1802, where they tracked him into a snowy forest and discovered a group of Druids waiting in ambush. Shade unleashed Red Dragon Force and sent their Owlbear leader flying, leaving the confrontation underway.

• Shade cut Baron Kaming and learned that his Time Curse made contact with gold exceeding 95% purity fatal, then examined a potion hidden inside nested boxes.
• Shade and Miss Winslet used the book's Tree Hole to travel to 1802, where Shade followed the Baron's blood echoes out of Creekwood Town.
• They found Baron Kaming kneeling in a snowy forest clearing at the center of a concealed Ritual Matrix.
• Six Ring Arcanists emerged from the woods, transformed into animals, and moved to attack while a short-haired woman led the Baron away.
• Shade activated Red Dragon Force and struck the transformed Owlbear, hurling the ten-ring arcanist backward.

Shade gained the Hermits of the Forest’s trust and reached their hidden camp, where Baron Kaming agreed to explain the time loop surrounding his family. The Baron began recounting how he discovered that James, his future son, was also his father, but had not yet explained why he took a baby in 1809.

• Shade’s owl transformed into a Unicorn, persuading the Hermits that Shade was not their enemy.
• Shade showed the Hermits the Jade Star Flower wreath, and they recognized Tree Father’s acknowledgment and led him to their hidden camp.
• Baron Kaming tried to seize the book Shade carried, then agreed to tell his story after Shade asked why he had stolen his wife as a baby in 1809.
• The Baron explained that he found his mother Erica’s diary and the book in 1826, learning that James was both his father and his future son.
• Shade asked whether James knew the truth in 1854, and the Baron had not yet answered.

Baron Kaming explained how he had stolen his infant wife to preserve the time loop that led to his own birth, and revealed the painful truths he had learned about his family. He told Shade that Erica Kaming was already pregnant and that he considered the cycle complete, leaving Shade to decide what to do about the book.

• Baron Kaming explained that he had pieced together the time-traveling history of three generations of his family and learned that his existence depended on James Kaming obtaining the book.
• He admitted that he had stolen his future wife as an infant, then encountered the lumber merchants who adopted her and recognized that his own existence proved the act was destined to happen.
• Shade corrected the Baron’s claim that the story’s beginning and end formed a circle, identifying Erica obtaining the book as the beginning and James losing it as the end.
• Baron Kaming told Shade and Owl that he had known his wife would bear James through an affair, and that he had fathered two sons and a daughter outside the marriage to leave descendants of his own.
• Baron Kaming revealed that Erica Kaming was already pregnant, said he had no intention of investigating James’s biological father, and told Shade he could take the book after returning to 1854.

Shade questioned Baron Kaming and Prada Oge about time travel, the Tree Hollow, and Creekwood Town’s unusual history. He agreed to help the Baron deal with the person coercing him, while the Hermits warned that Vesta Woodland had exceptionally weak temporal stability and left Shade’s questions about their past use of the Tree Hollow unresolved.

• Baron Kaming explained that the Hermits had taught him basic time-travel rules after rescuing him from the Time Curse, and Prada Oge restricted him to interacting with the Hermits of a single era.
• Prada Oge said the Hermits had no known way to travel through time without the Tree Hollow or Time Key, and the Baron revealed that someone from 1809 had threatened his family and forced him to deliver a box into the future.
• Shade kept the box and promised to help the Baron resolve the threat, since the Baron had paid the price of a deepened curse to return to this time.
• Prada Oge explained that the Hermits had long advised time travelers and that Vesta Woodland had exceptionally weak temporal stability; the Baron added that Creekwood Town’s established families might have encountered the Tree Hollow.
• Mr. Aug said the local Nature Church chapel had stood in Creekwood Town since its founding, while Shade suspected the chapel had concealed the town’s secrets.
• Prada Oge could not guarantee that no Hermits in earlier generations had used the Tree Hollow, and Shade answered the Baron’s question about regrets by saying he had no past.

Shade helped Baron Kaming return to 1854, where the Baron retrieved the book and said a final goodbye to his pregnant mother. Back in the present, Shade took the book and arranged to handle the box’s handover himself, while the Baron stayed in Creekwood Town.

• Shade and Baron Kaming said farewell to the Hermits and visited Erica Wood, where the Baron silently bid goodbye to his pregnant mother.
• The Baron used the Tree Hollows to return with Shade to James Kaming’s room in 1854, and gave Shade the book.
• The Baron explained that he would not tell James about the time-travel events, and Shade told him to stay in Creekwood Town while Shade handled the box’s handover.
• Shade left Maurice Mansion with the book and returned to his companions, where Flora’s cat disguise and Shade’s petting of her became a topic of conversation.

Flora asked Bella to divine Shade’s life before he turned twenty, but the reading produced only three cards, including Reversed Tower, Upright Moon, and Reversed Tree. Flora left without learning more, while Bella’s teasing about Galina and Hamilton stirred her jealousy; the chapter ended with Vanessa preparing to spend Friday night at Shade’s home with Luvia.

• Shade defended his rough treatment of Little Mia during dinner at 6 Saint Derain Square, and Luvia asked Galina how she had advised Bella to respond to Flora.
• Flora asked Bella to divine Shade’s past, and Bella agreed to a brief Tarot reading using five cards.
• Bella drew Freedom, Treasure, Reversed Tower, Upright Moon, and Reversed Tree, but ruled that three valid cards were not enough to continue the divination.
• Bella reassured Flora that she would soon advance to Twelfth Order, then teased her about Galina’s supposed lover, Hamilton, and suggested Vanessa investigate him.
• Flora objected to invading Galina’s privacy and planned to warn her about Vanessa, while Vanessa prepared to stay at Shade’s home with Luvia on Friday night.