Chapter Summaries

Shade and the Ring Arcanists repeatedly defeated the black dragon, only for it to revive from a giant tree in a time-stagnant forest. Realizing the beast needed a Ferryman to escape the cycle, Shade prepared to use the Radiance Messenger and Illustrious Miss, ending with plans to write his name in her Power Room.

• The Witches, Academy professors, dragons, and other Arcanists helped suppress the black dragon, but its body grew into a tree and revived it in perfect condition.
• Shade and the others battled the dragon again, and Shade cleaved it in two with the Silver Moonbeam Greatsword, but it quickly revived once more.
• Dorothy connected the dragon's repeated resurrection to Professor Danist's story about souls trapped in a region of eternal stagnation, and Shade realized it needed a Ferryman to carry it to the end.
• Shade chose to use the Radiance Messenger and Illustrious Miss, then wrote his name in the Captain's Room and across the ship's deck to strengthen his control.
• Illustrious Miss agreed to let Shade write his name in her Power Room, while Dorothy realized her connection with Leisha could still cross the divided Spacetime.

Shade and Illustrious Miss transformed the battle into a Mystic Lock over the Sea of No Light and used the Radiance Messenger to bind and drag the dragon beast. With the witches and Ring Arcanists helping, the ship finally began moving, but it had not yet reached the planned sea region as the dragon struggled and Illustrious Miss weakened.

• Iluna saw Shade and Illustrious Miss activate the Radiance Messenger’s power, replacing the battlefield with the Sea of No Light.
• The Radiance Messenger charged through the dragon beast’s decay breath and rammed it into the sea while the gathered fighters attacked.
• Shade cast Summon Old Wooden Boat through the ship, which fired chains and Great Sin Chains to bind the wounded dragon beast.
• Dorothy urged Iluna to try the Witch Secret Art—Order Chains, and Iluna successfully manifested chains with the Dark Gold Scales.
• The witches and Ring Arcanists combined their spells to restrain the dragon, allowing the Radiance Messenger to drag it across the stormy sea.
• The ship struggled to reach the planned sea region as the dragon fought back, Illustrious Miss’s strength waned, and Miss Owl took to the air.

Shade and the others forced the dragon beast through the Wall of Sighs and into the Underworld Moon’s mist, where it finally fell silent. Shade prepared to take Iluna and Flora farther into death’s realm while the Radiance Messenger waited at The Edge.

• Flora summoned the Wall of Sighs, and the Radiance Messenger broke through it into the mist surrounding the Underworld Moon.
• When the dragon beast’s strength surged and it dragged the ship backward, Iluna shouted the name Kinsley Kindel until its struggle weakened.
• Shade used the Radiance Messenger to pull the dragon completely through the wall and into the mist, where the dragon eventually stopped moving.
• Shade checked on the exhausted Flora and told Illustrious Miss to stop the ship at The Edge because it carried too many living people.
• Iluna and Flora joined Shade as he prepared to take the dragon farther ahead, while Illustrious Miss and the others waited aboard the ship.

Shade, Iluna, and Flora witnessed Kindel reunite with the Black Dragon in the realm of the dead, bringing the Dragon Egg’s long story to an end. They returned to the Woodland, where the battle still raged beneath the March sky.

• Shade dragged the weakened Black Dragon across the water to the edge of the Underworld Moon, where Kindel’s soul came to meet it.
• Kindel touched the dragon, which wept, regained its wisdom, and returned to the form of a hatchling before choosing to depart with him.
• Kindel thanked Shade and gave him a breeze-wrapped branch and a black, distorted heart, while Flora received a gift that raised the upper limit of her spirit.
• Shade said Flora had accepted death and believed she would become a Twelfth Order Great Witch once her Time Curse was lifted.
• Shade and Iluna returned to the Radiance Messenger and sailed through the mist until they emerged above the Woodland.
• They saw that the Dragon Blood Treants were still active, the Ring Arcanists were still fighting, and spirit light was erupting above a distant city.

After the dragon beast’s defeat, Shade learned that the Clockmaker had escaped and that the conflict in Vesta Woodland still had dangerous enemies ahead. He rested, while Galina and Leisha discussed looming war preparations, and the group postponed further action until they had recovered.

• Hailey Aurora reported that Yuri Aston had been defeated by the Clockmaker, who escaped through a spacetime rift with help from the Tree Hole Association.
• The summoned monsters were destroyed, and Shade recognized that the Clockmaker’s return likely involved a higher authority connected to the Ancient One in the woods.
• Shade visited Galina before going to rest, and she and Leisha discussed the king’s plans to issue War Bonds and the possibility of future war.
• After sleeping, Shade heard the battle’s aftermath at breakfast and learned that the Owl had not yet awakened after breaking through her limitations.
• Shade concluded that the Clockmaker’s return was preferable to an unknown enemy, while the group rested and delayed confronting the Watcher of the Paradox Worms.

Shade and Bella visited the Dragon Devouring Sacrificial Ground, where Shade used Kindel’s gifted dragon-beast heart to gain Dragon Breath and the Flight Spell. They returned to Belinder Manor by lunchtime, with Shade’s new powers tested and Bella’s city affairs briefly discussed.

• Shade and Bella walked through the Dragon Devouring Sacrificial Ground while Bella told him about changes in Moon Bay and reassured him about the coming battle at Vesta Woodland.
• Shade performed the Dragon Devouring Ritual on Kindel’s gifted heart and gained the Thaumaturgy—Dragon Breath and the Spell—Flight Spell.
• Shade tested his ability to hover and decided he would not seek out dragons to devour unless their hearts were gifts.
• Shade and Bella returned to Belinder Manor, where Shade helped Bella with official affairs before they joined the others for lunch.
• Galina revealed that the group had expected Shade to return with lipstick marks, prompting laughter from everyone.

Shade dealt with Flora’s hibernation as temporal anomalies spread through Vesta Woodland and across the Material World. Flora awoke with a weakened Time Curse and new power, while the Witch Council concluded that a great disaster was nearing and learned the Church was asking about Emilia.

• Shade, Dorothy, and Miss Danist performed an ancient ritual at the Old God Lord of Beasts’ temple to soothe Flora’s soul while she hibernated.
• Flora awoke aboard the cruise ship, discovered Megan and Audrey had played a joke about Shade’s wedding, and learned her Time Curse had greatly weakened.
• Flora told Shade and the others that her journey through death had strengthened her soul and granted her a Dragon Series Transformation Spell form, though Grandma Cassandra warned her not to overuse transformations.
• Temporal incidents spread across the Material World, and Shade believed the long-building problems in Vesta Woodland were nearing a breaking point.
• Sivie told the assembled witches that incident density had passed their warning line, while Miss Danist reported that the Church was asking about Emilia after their candidate’s defeat.

Shade and the witches planned how to provoke the Paradox Worms without waking them all, while diviners investigated the Bennett family’s youngest son. After the meeting, Megan and Audrey joined Galina in Shade’s room, where they waited for him together.

• Vanessa showed the group a map of Vesta Woodland’s Mithril veins, and Shade planned to draw out the Watcher by triggering a limited awakening of the Paradox Worms.
• The group agreed to wait until after next Monday for Sister Devlin and Speaker, while Bella and Luvia continued choosing where to blast the veins.
• Luvia and Bella reported that Thomas Bennett should not have been able to father a boy, and Shade said he would meet the Bennett child to determine whether he was human.
• Shade told Dorothy to have Leisha prepare to leave but not come to the forest yet, since newcomers might be watched.
• After the meeting, Megan and Audrey found Galina waiting in Shade’s room and joined her while Shade was in the washroom.

Shade and Flora investigated Albert Bennett after suspecting he might be Ashley Bethany’s missing brother, and Margaret confirmed that he was the royal illegitimate son. The discovery cleared up the rumor that William Anjou had killed his half-brother, but Albert’s apparent age and hidden identity raised new suspicions, while Shade promised Ashley a chance to meet him later.

• Megan told Flora that she and Audrey had enjoyed late-night snacks with Galina and Shade, while Angelina hoped Emilia would return that evening.
• Shade watched Albert Bennett walk home from school and noticed the boy resembled someone, then invited Flora to spend the Year-End Festival with him.
• Shade and Flora asked Margaret to summon Ashley Bethany’s soul and showed her Albert’s photograph, but she could not identify him from the distorted image.
• Shade, Flora, Margaret, and Ashley watched Albert pass their café, and Margaret recognized him as the illegitimate son.
• Shade and Flora concluded Albert was Ashley’s brother, though his apparent age and the Bennett Family’s resistance to investigation suggested a larger mystery.
• Ashley asked to meet her brother, and Shade promised to arrange it and investigate why Albert had appeared in Vesta City.

Shade investigated the unresolved death of Ashley Bethany and the Bennett Family while the threat of the Paradox Worms delayed the woodland hunt. He ended the chapter visiting Doctor Schneider, who had begun using his new power freely.

• Margaret told Shade that the dead agents Sage and Sea Coral had left conflicting accounts of who shot Ashley Bethany, leaving her killer unknown.
• Miss Bell reported that the Accordion Hotel stopped serving guests early every Saturday, and Shade decided to investigate its 1st Floor the next night.
• Shade and his allies learned that the Watcher might awaken every Paradox Worm in Vesta Woodland, so they postponed the hunt until they found a way to control the threat.
• Shade visited Doctor Schneider, who said he could now cast spells freely despite not yet mastering his new power.

Doctor Schneider recovered to Tenth Ring and told Shade about a secret gathering in Vesta City where a Founding card had appeared. At the end of the month, Shade used the Door Pendant to travel to the destroyed era and see Adele, arriving with permission to carry an extra relic.

• Doctor Schneider explained that he had balanced the Demon Hunter's power with the Demon of the Fire's power and would be ready to help Shade in Vesta Woodland the following week.
• Doctor Schneider said he planned to seek the Demon Hunter Encyclopedia and the Path of No Light, preparing for a future battle with the most ancient evil creature.
• Doctor Schneider revealed that a secret gathering in Vesta City had recently hosted a Founding card and that an elderly owner of an Old Bookstore in the northeastern Old Town held an Invitation Letter.
• Shade left Luvia and Dorothy asleep, opened the Door Pendant with the Black Key, and entered the Time Corridor to visit Adele.
• Shade arrived at Saint Derain Square in the past, where he was restricted from leaving the square and could use a Time Key to return if he faced a powerful enemy.

Shade answered Adele’s summons and found her fighting the Curse-Eroded Great Tree, a deadly Doomsday evil. As they tried to escape its underground cemetery, Adele gave Shade new power with a kiss while the tree’s vines pursued them.

• Shade called Adele’s name in the ruined plaza, and her panicked phantom appeared briefly before vanishing.
• Shade answered a summons and arrived at Adele’s side in an underground cemetery as the Curse-Eroded Great Tree attacked them.
• Adele explained that the tree had absorbed Time Curses and become a dangerous evil, while Shade dodged its attacks and his crystallized arm recovered.
• Shade tried to fly out through the pit’s opening, but Adele warned that its chaotic time flow could send them anywhere.
• Shade reached for a bottle of perfume essence, but realized his projection could not project a Relic, and Adele kissed him to grant him power as the vines closed in.

Shade rescued Adele from the Curse-Eroded Great Tree’s time-frozen pit and reunited with her at Saint Derain Square. After sharing what they knew about the tree and Vesta Woodland, Adele explained the destructive power of Luvia Annette’s Words of Sublimation.

• Shade froze time with Mizzle - Crystal Light, broke through the crystal wall, and escaped the pit with Adele.
• Shade returned to Saint Derain Square and summoned Adele by speaking her name, and she passionately embraced him.
• Adele told Shade that she had become trapped while investigating the Curse-Eroded Great Tree and believed it had formed on Kalas Mountain.
• Shade and Adele discussed Helena Carter’s connection to the tree, the events in Vesta Woodland, and the possibility of summoning Adele again with the Philosopher’s Stone and Words of Sublimation.
• Adele explained that The First Silver Moon, Guides the Final Direction used the Yggdrasil Staff to summon the Original Moon and transform the surroundings into a vision of Doomsday.

Shade spent time with Adele in the Past, discussing his Words of Sublimation and the Bennett family before heading to the square for his trial. After Shade violated the rule against leaving Saint Derain Square, he was punished with no powerful enemy this time, but learned that the Curse-Eroded Great Tree would be his next opponent and that he could leave using the Yggdrasil Key.

• Shade and Adele discussed his incomplete understanding of the apocalypse and the possible effects of his Mid-Ring Words of Sublimation.
• Adele recalled that the Bennett family had disappeared after the Vesta City time incident and that no Bennett had become a Chosen One of Time.
• After sharing an intimate moment, Adele urged Shade to go to the square, where he waited but encountered no powerful enemy.
• Shade learned that leaving Saint Derain Square had cost him this trial’s reward and fixed the Curse-Eroded Great Tree as his next powerful enemy.
• Shade discovered he could return at any time by opening a door with the Yggdrasil Key, then returned to Adele and asked her to summon him if she faced danger.

After visiting Adele in the Doomsday Era, Shade returned to the Radiance Messenger and dreamed of talking with Long-Haired Luvia about the coming end of Vesta City. On Saturday morning, Galina reported that patches of Vesta Woodland had turned green and grown enormous trees, prompting Shade and the others to investigate.

• Shade returned to the Radiance Messenger, hid the traces of his visit to Adele, and joined Luvia and Dorothy in bed.
• In a dream at 6 Saint Derain Square, Shade asked Long-Haired Luvia about the black sun and told her he would give nothing up; she promised to help him.
• Galina woke Shade and reported that Vesta Woodland had begun turning green, with hundred-meter-tall trees appearing across the forest.
• Shade, the Hermits of the Forest, and Miss Danist mapped the transformed woodland and found that the changes were denser farther from the city.
• The Church observed that the giant trees seemed likely to become treants, and the elves spread through the forest to investigate them.

Shade visited Berkeley Bookstore in search of an Invitation Letter and agreed to find a woman from an old photograph in exchange for it. He recognized a flower seller from Tuesday as a possible clue and sent Angelina to look for her.

• Shade went to the Old Town bookstore after the Doctor told him it might have an Invitation Letter.
• Berkeley denied having the letter at first, then offered to reveal where it was hidden if Shade brought a woman to the bookstore willingly.
• Berkeley showed Shade a decades-old photograph and said the woman had become a Flower Girl who sold flowers near the Golden Music Hall.
• Shade remembered a flower seller he had met on Tuesday who resembled the girl in the photograph.
• Shade used the Moon Library to recreate the flower seller's image, and Dorothy had Angelina take it into the city to search for her.

Shade investigated the Berkeley Old Bookstore owner’s connection to Jenny Cree and learned that the old man had been waiting for a woman he had met as a boy. The chapter ended with the old man’s story revealed, while Shade still had to determine how the woman and Jenny were linked through time travel.

• Angelina found that Jenny Cree was a thirteen-year-old girl from Old Town with no apparent connection to the Berkeley Old Bookstore.
• Shade visited Jenny at home, then arranged for her to deliver a letter to the old shopkeeper.
• The old shopkeeper broke down after Jenny left, and Shade returned to hear his story.
• The old man explained that he had met a mysterious girl in his youth, loved her, and watched her vanish after saying she had found a way home.
• After receiving an Invitation Letter, the old man chose 1835 and opened a bookstore where his family home had stood, hoping the girl would find him.

Shade learned how an old bookstore owner had traveled through time to reunite with his young love, only to find they had missed each other by decades. After receiving the man's black Invitation Letter, Shade planned to attend a secret gathering that night and investigate who was helping people travel through time.

• The old man told Shade he would leave his bookstore to the girl he had loved, though he intended not to disturb her life.
• The old man explained that a secret gathering had sent him through time and warned him to live quietly, then gave Shade instructions for using the black Invitation Letter on Saturday.
• Shade left the bookstore with the invitation and wondered whether the old man would seek out the girl or die in his shop.
• Shade recounted the story to Miss Danist and Flora, who compared it to Shade's relationship with Teacher and Lady Helena Carter.
• Shade concluded that an existence related to Trees might be sending people through time and decided to attend the secret gathering alone that night.

Shade entered the Time Transfer Station, a frozen moment inside the Accordion Hotel where visitors could travel to the past, and learned that permanent time travel came with strict conditions. He realized the Masked Man’s contract would let him claim any Paradox Worms produced by the journey, and challenged the terms.

• Shade used Enhanced Space Perception to recognize the tavern as the 1st floor of the Accordion Hotel, frozen at 7:42:23 on the 1st day of the Month of Frost's Descent, 1854.
• Shade watched a red-haired scholar sign a contract to travel temporarily to 1800 in search of the lost Charlotte Prophecy Collection.
• A second visitor signed a contract to travel permanently to 1769 and disappeared into darkness through the inn’s front door.
• Shade told the Masked Man he wanted to visit his teacher’s teacher in 1822, then asked what each travel option would cost.
• The Masked Man showed Shade contracts requiring payment or a task for a visit, and imposing restrictions and memory loss for permanent travel.
• Shade recognized that the permanent-travel contract would give the Masked Man ownership of any Paradox Worms produced by time travel and objected to the terms.

Shade visited the Time Transfer Station, learned that Anthony Winslet had traveled away from the present, and arranged to return with Sand of Time for a doorway to Anthony’s time. After leaving the frozen station, Shade and the silver Cat suspected it had been created through an advanced Tree Hole Spell and that Bennett was involved.

• Shade questioned the Masked Man about the station’s time-travel limits and learned that it had stopped offering trips to the future.
• The Masked Man revealed that Anthony Winslet had arrived in spring 1844 and later left the present, but refused to disclose where he went without payment.
• Shade agreed to bring ten standard units of Sand of Time and meet the Masked Man at the station on Sunday night.
• The Masked Man revealed his eight-ring Destiny Ring and the Core Ling Runes Miracle-Tree, Enlightenment-Time, and Enlightenment-Contract, while Shade sensed the station was too dangerous for a fight.
• Shade returned to the alley, and he and the silver Cat suspected the station was an advanced use of the Tree Hole Spell and that Bennett had not created it alone.