Chapter Summaries

Shade and the others discussed the aftermath of the battle, including Galina’s soul injury from fusing with Shade and the Paradox Worms’ connection to Creekwood Town. Shade explained that the woodland’s tree was cultivating the worms to weaken the seal on local temporal stability, leaving the group to face the threat of the tree and its reborn Watcher.

• Galina woke aboard the Radiance Messenger and learned that Shade’s soul radiance had injured her during their Fusion, requiring a week of bed rest.
• Shade promised not to use the Mystic Lock on anyone again unless they were a Demigod Witch, a Chosen One, or a Thirteenth Order Great Witch.
• Luvia reported that the Church suspected the Paradox Worms’ attack had tested Vesta City’s defenses and that few residents had become trees.
• Shade concluded that Creekwood Town’s tangled family histories and Tree Hollows had helped the great tree cultivate Paradox Worms and weaken the temporal seal.
• Shade confirmed that the Paradox Worm Iluna killed had been the Watcher and that it had been reborn from a new cocoon.

After the battle with the Watcher, Shade visited the recovering Angelina, who had awakened with new moonlight powers and insights from Astounding Wisdom. Angelina revealed that she had gained a talent and new Thaumaturgy, leaving her poised to advance to the third ring.

• Grandma Cassandra and the Witches discussed the Paradox Worms and urged the recovering Galina to rest.
• Shade learned that Angelina had fainted after witnessing his fight beneath the moon and went to visit her.
• Angelina showed Shade that she could summon moonlight with the Moonbeam Spell and asked whether he was Su Lun.
• Shade used Lingquan Enlightenment on Angelina, who explained that Astounding Wisdom had triggered her Heart Lock talent.
• Angelina said she had gained Mind's Light and Self Spirit Runes and learned the Invisible Man Thaumaturgy.

Angelina tested her new Thaumaturgy and recovered enough to reunite with Iluna and Emilia, who formed an alliance with her to help Iluna revive the World Tree. Shade and his companions then planned how to stop the Watcher from reviving before the Battle of Vesta Woodland.

• Angelina demonstrated her ability to erase her presence, and Shade warned her to be careful when using the dangerous Thaumaturgy.
• Angelina and Shade shared an intimate moment before Iluna and Emilia arrived to visit her.
• Iluna told Emilia and Angelina that Shade's Yggdrasil Staff came from a dead World Tree and asked them to help her gather what she needed to revive it; the three agreed to keep the plan secret.
• Shade gave the insect shell dropped by the Watcher to the Elf in the woods, then discussed the approaching battle with Luvia and Iluna.
• Luvia's divination revealed that Sister Devlin or Priest Augustus could permanently kill the Watcher, and Shade planned to visit the Priest over the weekend.

Shade spent the day with Emilia before she departed for a journey into the past, while Margaret visited him and explained her new royal duties. That evening, Shade and a small group accompanied Emilia and the Forest Elf Girl through the moonlit woodland toward the ritual that would send Emilia away.

• Flora told Shade and Miss Danist that Bella Belinder would soon arrive after becoming Speaker of Moon Bay's City Council, and Shade denied that giving her authority over the city had been a romantic gesture.
• Margaret visited Shade, explained that she had been sent to investigate whether the dead man was truly her brother, and said her father might give her part of Gray Gloves' authority if she succeeded.
• Emilia's friends gathered for dinner at the Accordion Hotel, while Dorothy reassured her that she could thank everyone after she returned.
• After dinner, Shade, Miss Danist, and Luvia accompanied Emilia and the Forest Elf Girl out from Yulun Lake, riding Luku Birds behind Little Liana.
• As they rode beneath the moon, Emilia held the Forest Elf Girl and felt less nervous about the journey that would take her into the past.

Shade and his companions prepared a time-travel ritual so Emilia could use her qualification to visit an era connected to the Academy. The ritual sent her to a waterlogged, ruined corridor filled with malice, leaving her unsure where she had arrived.

• The group reached the ancient clearing, where the Forest Elf explained the history of the five Elf Kings’ chairs and the sealed site.
• Shade and the others arranged a ritual using Feliana's Notebook, the Academy Chancellor's seal, and other historical objects to help Emilia travel through time.
• Emilia said goodbye to her companions, received a diary from the Elf Girl, and checked that she had packed supplies and protective items.
• Shade activated the ritual, and Emilia used the mark of her qualification to travel alone.
• Emilia arrived in a dark, damp corridor surrounded by signs of ruin and sensed overwhelming malice, making her question where she was.

Emilia reached a strange bonfire gathering and reunited with Iluna, while Shade worried about her disappearance and went searching for Doctor Schneider. Shade found the Doctor in a cabin in the forest, where their fight began.

• Emilia found Iluna, a dragon maid, the Gray Wolf Witch, and Miss Maze seated around a bonfire, and Iluna verified her identity with the Sunlight Gun Brooch.
• Iluna embraced Emilia and told her that Shade had often wondered how she was doing since she left.
• Shade reassured himself that Emilia would return, then asked Luvia to tell Angelina they needed to talk that night.
• Shade followed Doctor Schneider's traces through the forest and found a cabin prepared as a trap for lost travelers.
• Doctor Schneider revealed himself and attacked Shade, but Shade dodged his spatial jump and punched him in the head.

Shade stopped Doctor Schneider’s loss of control and learned that the Doctor planned to restrain his demonic power with Demon Hunting Seals. Their discussion of finding seals turned to a relic from a long-dead hunter, and the Doctor revealed that the notes might connect to the organized schools of Third Epoch Demon Hunters.

• Shade fought the giant Doctor Schneider, used Thaumaturgy to restore his senses, and helped him back into the cottage.
• Doctor Schneider explained that demonic power had entered his Destiny Ring but remained beyond his control, and proposed using thirteen Demon Hunting Seals as limiters.
• Shade challenged the Doctor’s plan to proceed without enough seals and use Night Watchman to stop him if he lost control.
• Shade mentioned the Demon Hunter’s Notes left by a hunter in Gregory Village, and the Doctor recognized them as connected to the organized societies and schools of Third Epoch Demon Hunters.
• Doctor Schneider suggested that the Blood Spirit School and Zaras Academy of Literature might descend from Demon Hunter organizations.

Shade and Doctor Schneider planned to use Demon Hunter's Notes in a ritual to balance demonic powers, and the Doctor agreed to seek materials from the Mist Crow Brotherhood. The Doctor also revealed that the Kindel Family had profited from Dragon Dung near Creekwood Town, leading Shade to investigate its possible connection to Queen Diana's family.

• Shade suggested using Demon Hunter's Notes instead of thirteen Demon Hunting Seals, and Doctor Schneider reluctantly agreed after Shade argued the book could restrain the Demon King's power.
• Doctor Schneider planned to find symbolic materials from aberrant demons through the Mist Crow Brotherhood and asked Shade to return on Monday night.
• Doctor Schneider told Shade that Fire Demon - Disaster's memories linked a local family to Dragon Dung, which they had sold for great wealth in Creekwood Town.
• Doctor Schneider identified the family as the Kindel Family, and Shade recalled that Queen Diana's maiden name was Kindel.
• Shade asked the Ladies of Cavendish about the family, and they learned from the Great Witch of Death and Miss Bell that a local Kindel branch had vanished decades earlier after leaving its mark on Creekwood Town's first railway.

Shade learned of the Kindel Family’s old royal scandal and gave Angelina a powerful relic after discussing her newly awakened talent. As he worried about Emilia and the choice awaiting him, the Moon answered his question about another way forward, while Luvia watched him from the cabin entrance.

• Galina explained that a branch of the Kindel Family had been expelled from Delarion after Duke Kinder's Brother’s affair with the Queen, and Shade connected the family’s descendants to Colonel Dupont's Wife.
• Shade and the others discussed Angelina’s talent, warned her to keep it secret and learn to control her power, and Shade gave her a Sage Level Relic Soul Gem despite Leisha’s concerns.
• Shade woke from a troubling dream about Emilia, then went to the deck for tea and reflected on the choice he would face at the end of the story.
• Shade asked beneath the Moon whether he had any means beyond divinity, and “She” answered with the Mid-Ring Words of Sublimation: “The Silver Moon's Shadow, Guides the Final Direction.”
• Luvia watched Shade on the deck as the owl on the mast recorded a poem about him and the young lady watching him.

Shade and Flora visited Annie Dupont to investigate the Kindel Family, but their questions revealed that she was more troubled by her family bloodline than by accusations of espionage. Shade pressed her for the Kindel Family’s history and secrets, and the chapter ended with him warning that he could expose the truth about her past.

• Shade agreed that Angelina could remain in Vesta Woodland while she was supposedly gravely ill.
• Shade and Flora went to Colonel Dupont’s house in Vesta City, posing as Gray Gloves agents to question his wife, Annie Dupont.
• Annie denied working with either kingdom’s intelligence network and said she wanted to live quietly.
• Shade suggested that the Kindel bloodline had not ended and that Annie’s birth into the family could not be changed, upsetting her.
• Shade asked Annie to share the Kindel Family’s history and secrets, then cited the downfall of Kant’s family to show he could uncover the truth.

Shade and Flora tracked Annie Dupont and her maid Jessica into the woods after discovering Annie planned to flee. They found the women were lovers with weak Dragonborn bloodlines, and after calming them down, Flora began questioning them about the Kindel Family.

• Annie Dupont stormed out when Shade questioned her, and Shade and Flora suspected she planned to flee with her lover.
• Annie and Jessica left the city by carriage and hurried into the woods carrying suitcases, where Shade and Flora caught up with them.
• Annie transformed into a dragonlike form and charged Shade, while Jessica also revealed Dragonborn traits and attacked; Shade stopped them both.
• Annie and Jessica cried together, and Flora reassured them that they would not be separated.
• Flora explained that they wanted information about the Kindel Family, and Shade concluded the women were not Ring Arcanists.

Shade learned that Annie Dupont and Jessica shared Kindel Family ancestry and that their Dragonkin Bloodline had awakened under unusual circumstances. After hearing about the family’s history and abandoned manor, he went to investigate its basement and encountered Professor Yuke Wood there.

• Annie Dupont and Jessica explained their shared ancestry, their Dragonkin traits, and how Jessica’s bloodline had awakened after becoming intimate with Annie.
• Shade explained that their traits came from a weak Dragonkin Bloodline and learned that their ancestor had found and raised a strange creature from an egg.
• Annie recalled that the Kindel Family’s burned old house might still contain things in its basement and said the family had owed a debt to the Cavendish Family.
• Shade and Flora warned Annie and Jessica against anyone claiming they could remove their inherited traits, then escorted them back to the city.
• Shade, Flora, Luvia, Tifa, and three Northern Kingdom maids traveled to the Kindel manor ruins, where Shade met Professor Yuke Wood.
• Shade asked Professor Yuke Wood whether he had come to investigate the Kindel Family’s connection to the Northern Kingdom’s ducal family.

Shade and the others uncovered the Kindel Family’s hidden chest, which contained evidence of its bloodline curse and a Tree Hollow connecting two distant eras. At dinner aboard the Radiance Messenger, Shade planned an investigation in 1479, though the group worried that the two-hour limit might not be enough.

• Professor Yuke Wood told Shade about the Kindel Family’s history and its failed orchard in Creekwood Town.
• Shade, Luvia, and Flora found a hidden chest beneath the manor containing gold, documents, a family seal, an Eggshell Shard, and a wooden board that Luvia identified as a Tree Hollow.
• Shade found a fourth Elven Antique Arrow in the chest and planned to have the Duchess’s maids examine the Kasonlik documents.
• Shade told the Great Witches that the Tree Hollow connected 1479 and 308, and that he planned to travel to 1479 to investigate the Kindel Family’s history.
• The group discussed whether Shade and Flora could learn enough during the Tree Hollow’s two-hour opening, and Vanessa asked whether Luvia could accompany him.

Shade prepared to travel through the Distorted Tree Hole and received dividends from Sylvia, who asked him to call her by her name and spent the evening with him. The next morning, Shade woke beside Dorothy and wondered how Emilia was doing.

• Shade agreed to leave for the Distorted Tree Hole the next day, and Grandma Cassandra offered to prepare period-appropriate money and clothing.
• Sylvia brought Shade dividends and business proceeds, and he accepted some money for daily expenses while leaving the rest invested in their businesses.
• Sylvia asked Shade to call her “Sylvia,” and he agreed before the two became intimate in his room.
• Angelina entered Shade's room without knocking, saw him with Sylvia, and fled into the corridor, where Ilisa and Luvia caught her.
• Shade woke beside Dorothy on the morning of the 26th of the Month of Withered Leaves and reflected on the anniversary of events in Tobesk while wondering about Emilia.

Luvia’s divination dated the Black Dragon Beast’s egg to year 227, but Shade’s attempt to enter the past through the sixth tree hollow was repelled when the hollow locked itself with the Tree Father’s power. He abandoned the Time Exploration and took Flora and Sylvia into the forest to investigate the Kindel Family’s abandoned orchard.

• Luvia told Shade that her divination dated the eggshell to year 227, and Grandma Cassandra connected its Black Dragon bloodline to an earlier dragon driven away by Sky Blade.
• Miss Danist agreed to contact the Nature Church and seek information from the Hermits of the Forest about the Black Dragon.
• Shade used the Ashes River Valley key on the tree hollow, but it blasted him backward and he realized the hollow had locked itself upon activation.
• Shade identified the containment power as belonging to the Tree Father and canceled the planned journey into the past rather than undo the lock.
• Shade chose to investigate the Kindel Family’s abandoned orchard, and Flora and Sylvia joined him with other witches as they entered the forest.

Shade and his companions reached an abandoned orchard and discovered that a camp of Ring Arcanists had recently been attacked by Demons. Shade suspected his friend the Doctor was involved, and a Dragon Egg fragment began resonating as they approached the site.

• Flora blushed after Sylvia whispered how she had persuaded Shade to change the way he addressed her.
• Natalie Moreno detected surveillance rituals near the orchard, so Shade sent Sylvia and the young ladies into hiding while Flora accompanied him as an owl.
• Shade triggered the surveillance rituals with Mind Blast, but nobody appeared, so he and Flora advanced toward the abandoned orchard.
• Shade found fresh signs of a fierce battle and recognized Demon power on both the attackers and the Ring Arcanists defending the camp.
• Shade identified the Doctor as the likely attacker and told Flora to wait while he went ahead alone.
• The Dragon Egg fragment began vibrating, and Flora explained that it had resonated with a soul connected to the Black Dragon.

Shade and Doctor Schneider fought the Mist Crow Brotherhood’s vice president, Reed DiMen, before negotiating a trade for the Doctor’s materials. They left with their purchases and learned that Hermons, the Blood Spirit School’s Weeper of Blood, had come to the area.

• Shade and Doctor Schneider battled Reed DiMen and the Mist Crow Brotherhood’s Ring Arcanists after their attempt to trade turned into a fight.
• Doctor Schneider destroyed Reed DiMen’s summoned demon, while Shade used the Great Sin Chains to seize the Angel Level Relic Weeper of the Condemned.
• Shade and Doctor Schneider cornered Reed DiMen, who agreed to trade and identified himself as the Mist Crow Brotherhood’s vice president.
• Shade asked about the Blood Spirit School, and Reed DiMen confirmed that Hermons had come to the area.
• The Mist Crow Brotherhood gathered the Doctor’s requested materials, and Doctor Schneider paid for them before he and Shade left with the goods.
• Once they were deep in the forest, Shade asked whether the trade was what Doctor Schneider had planned, and the Doctor said he had hoped for a peaceful exchange.

Shade and his companions used the wooden key to unlock a projection showing the Dragon Egg’s history in the forest. The egg survived decades of changing seasons, and the projection reached Year 308 of the Sixth Epoch, the earliest time corresponding to the Tree Hollow.

• Shade arranged with the Doctor to meet Monday night and bring the book.
• The owl reported finding a wooden key in a box beneath a tree in the camp.
• Shade used the key on the wooden board, revealing a projection of the Dragon Egg buried in a snowy forest in Year 227 of the Sixth Epoch.
• Luvia and Flora identified the egg as the one Shade had divined and matched it to the Eggshell Shards.
• Shade and the others watched the egg endure the passing seasons and years until the projection reached Year 308, when its time returned to normal speed.

Shade and the Witches watched the Dragon Egg’s history unfold, from its near-destruction in 308 to its discovery and care by a Kindel Family man in 1457. In 1479, the egg finally hatched into a black dragon beast, whom the man named Kinsley Kindel.

• A wolf dug up the Dragon Egg in 308, and it rolled down a snowy slope before White Fog carried the scene to summer in 1457.
• Shade froze the scene and showed the Witches a young man discovering the egg; he recognized it as a member of the Kindel Family and took it to his cabin.
• The man warmed the egg by the fireplace and returned each spring and autumn to care for it, while it gradually showed signs of hatching.
• In 1479, the Dragon Egg cracked, and the aging man fed the fire as it hatched into a black dragon beast.
• The newborn dragon survived falling into the flames, flew into the man’s arms, and was named Kinsley Kindel.

Shade and the others watched the story of a man who raised a Black Dragon beast and the dragon’s grief after his death. When the dragon encountered the Wish Demon Zatanah, it wished to preserve their story, and Zatanah recorded it on a wooden board.

• Over twenty years, the man raised and taught the dragon, then died in 1499 after asking to be buried beside his Vacation Cabin.
• After the burial, the dragon returned, carried the man’s coffin to its nest, and wept over it.
• The dragon found the bottle containing Zatanah, and Shade recognized the demon as the Sage Level Relic Reward of Greed.
• Zatanah offered the dragon three wishes in exchange for payment, and the dragon refused to wish for the man’s revival.
• The dragon wished to record its story with the man and their conversation, so Zatanah inscribed it onto a wooden board and produced a key for replaying it.