Chapter Summaries

Shade discovered that Professor Drake had briefly become Gifted through his connection to Halder Ondiba, then used the Aiken Ola Knowledge Arrow to recover clues about the professor’s forgotten past. Professor Drake asked Shade to take him to the Goddess in the Lake so he could learn the truth, and they planned to leave after lunch.

• Shade learned that the Aiken Ola Knowledge Arrow contained the power of the Ancient God Keeper of Secrets Mentor and noticed that Professor Drake felt none of its influence.
• Shade used the arrow to cut Professor Drake and himself, confirming that Drake gained fragmented knowledge despite now being an ordinary person.
• Shade recognized the ancient writing in Drake’s book as the professor’s handwriting and inferred that Drake had once briefly awakened as a Ring Arcanist.
• Shade suggested that Drake had abandoned a lifelong pursuit after achieving it and had wished to forget, likely with the Goddess in the Lake’s help.
• Professor Drake asked Shade to take him to the Goddess in the Lake to learn his past, and Shade agreed to leave after lunch.

Shade brought Professor Drake to the Goddess in the Lake and completed her Second Trial by uncovering why Drake had come to her and what he had sacrificed. The Goddess then revealed that the Third Trial was for Shade to defeat her.

• Shade and Professor Drake traveled to Loch Ness, where Shade defeated a giant water frog with Thunder Spear and opened a water gate to Lake of Cherub.
• Shade pushed Professor Drake across the hidden path and brought him to the White Robed Lady on Lake Heart Island.
• Shade explained that Drake had become a Ring Arcanist after being struck by Akenola's Knowledge Arrow, then asked the Goddess to erase his knowledge and power out of fear.
• Drake admitted that he had paid with his legs, memories, and Gift, and Shade presented Halder Ondiba's arrow as proof of the case.
• The White Robed Lady confirmed that Shade had passed the Second Trial and announced that the Third Trial was to defeat her.

Shade accepted the Goddess in the Lake’s Third Trial, a combat duel in which she would suppress her power. Professor Kansas Drake refused to erase his memories and instead wished for Shade to receive help, leaving Shade able to control the lake water before the fight began.

• The White Robed Lady told Shade that he had to prove his strength by defeating her in combat, and Shade agreed to the trial.
• Shade offered Professor Drake the chance to make a wish, including restoring his legs or erasing his memories of the journey.
• Professor Drake chose to keep what he had learned and asked the White Robed Lady to help Shade before the duel.
• The White Robed Lady granted Shade control of the water beneath his feet, though Shade doubted it would give him an advantage against her.

Shade faced the White Robed Lady in the Third Trial, learning that she was a Fourth Ring angel who had once governed water. After she acknowledged the Deathbringer Angel’s recognition and eased the terms, Shade fought her across the lake and gained a brief advantage with the Moonbeam Greatsword before she blocked his strike and invoked three Spirit Runes.

• Shade received the thaumaturgy Control Water Flow and learned that the White Robed Lady was a Fourth Ring angel associated with water.
• Shade showed her Priest Augustus’s charred feather, and she recognized the Deathbringer Angel’s acknowledgment and agreed to admit defeat if he remained standing after five minutes.
• The White Robed Lady drew a sword from the lake and pressed Shade into a disadvantage with her skillful swordsmanship.
• Shade escaped her wave with Red Butterflies and Thunder Spear, then summoned the Moonbeam Greatsword through the Night Watchman.
• Shade attacked with Laguerre’s Leap and drove the White Robed Lady back, but she blocked his strike with her wings and activated Whisper Phantom, Miracle Reality, and Enlightenment Seal.

Shade fought the White Robed Lady across Lake of Cherub, struggling against her control of the water and superior combat skill. He fashioned a bow from the lake and drew the Aiken Ola Knowledge Arrow, awakening God's Radiance for the first time without touching a god.

• Shade dodged the White Robed Lady's water attacks and clashed with her, but their impact cracked his Impure Dragon Blood relic and her wooden staff tangled with the Night Watchman.
• Shade lost the Night Watchman and found that his swords and Thaumaturgies could not seriously harm the White Robed Lady.
• Shade used the Little Match Girl to briefly calm the lake, then asked “her” to help him aim a final attack.
• Shade shaped lake water into a supernatural bow and nocked the Aiken Ola Knowledge Arrow.
• Shade drew the bow as “she” guided his aim, and the arrow's power awakened God's Radiance, spreading golden cracks across his body.

Shade completed the Third Trial by drawing on the power of civilization, gaining the Whisper Spirit Rune Power and glimpsing Enlightenment, but the Goddess in the Lake conceded before he could fire his arrow. She then began to explain the final trial.

• Dark clouds gathered over Huntington and Lake of Cherub as Shade’s power awakened.
• Shade drew the Knowledge Arrow of Akenola with help from silver-white arms, declaring that his strength came from civilization.
• The arrow’s power inscribed the Whisper Spirit Rune Power on Shade’s Destiny Ring and brought him close to grasping Enlightenment.
• Shade realized that firing the arrow at the Goddess in the Lake might create his fourth-ring Mystic Lock, but she stopped him and conceded the duel.
• Shade released the bowstring, the clouds cleared, and the Goddess in the Lake announced that the Third Trial was complete.
• Shade consoled himself over not firing the arrow, and the Goddess in the Lake began describing the final trial.

Shade completed the third trial at Lake of Cherub and received the Deathbringer Angel's remains, but the White Robed Lady set him an unanswerable question for his final trial: why she remained in the Material World. After returning to Loch Ness with Professor Drake, Shade learned that the professor planned to move to Weilun Dai'er and offered Shade the forgotten objects in his study.

• The White Robed Lady told Shade that his final trial was to answer why she had remained in the Material World, and Shade agreed to search for the answer.
• The White Robed Lady gave Shade the Deathbringer Angel's ribs as his reward, and Shade returned the remains to their intended destination.
• Shade regained Night Watchman by invoking Silver Moon and his oath to justice, then filled his waterskin with lake water.
• Shade reappeared beside Professor Drake at Loch Ness, and the two left the lake together.
• Professor Drake told Shade he planned to move to Weilun Dai'er to live near his children, reconnect with old friends, and get a cat.
• Professor Drake asked Shade to check his study before he left and take the forgotten or unknown objects there.

Shade told Priest Augustus about his encounter with the Goddess in the Lake, whom Augustus identified as the Intellect Angel Cherub-Kerub, and gave him angelic remains for his research. Augustus left with the remains, and Dorothy arrived at Shade’s home as they saw him off.

• Shade recounted his meeting and fight with the Goddess in the Lake and gave Priest Augustus the primitive statue Professor Kansas Drake had owned.
• Priest Augustus identified the Goddess in the Lake as Cherub-Kerub, an Intellect Angel created by Keeper of Secrets Mentor, and explained that she was likely incomplete.
• Shade showed Priest Augustus the First Angel’s remains that the Goddess in the Lake had given him.
• Priest Augustus accepted the remains and promised to make Shade a gift after using them to improve his alchemy and holy water.
• As Priest Augustus prepared to leave with the stone casket, Dorothy arrived at Shade’s home and teased them about welcoming her.

After defeating an Angel, Shade celebrated with Dorothy and then prepared to learn the Sun Church’s defensive Thaumaturgy, the Heaton Seal. With Miss Sylvia’s help, he completed the ritual and tested the bright golden shield in his basement.

• Shade told Dorothy about defeating an Angel and keeping the Aiken Ola Knowledge Arrow and special waterskin out of the Pantanal Voodoo Society’s hands.
• Dorothy invited Shade to visit Luvia, and Shade realized it was the right night; Luvia was away collecting supplies for a potion.
• Shade returned home with an ancient Cannibal Aken Tribe Language document and prepared the Heaton Seal ritual in his basement.
• Miss Sylvia arrived, helped Shade improve the Golden Sun Potion, and waited while he completed the ritual.
• Shade learned the Heaton Seal and summoned a brilliant golden shield, then prepared to test it with Miss Sylvia as his sparring partner.

Shade tested the expanded Heaton Seal with Miss Sylvia, who also advised him on his studies and heard about his adventures in Huntington. On a snowy day in Middlesburg, Shade visited the Cassandra Auction House and refused the Red Butterfly Twins’ offer to help defend his home from Jack the Thief.

• Shade and Miss Sylvia tested the Heaton Seal against attacks, finding it resisted most physical and magical threats but not Space Cutting.
• Miss Sylvia advised Shade on his Ring Arcanist studies and Laguerre’s Leap, and Shade told her about finding the Goddess in the Lake and acquiring the Knowledge Arrow of Akenola.
• After snow covered Sikar Mountain and Middlesburg, Shade delivered a letter to Sister Devlin and went to the Cassandra Auction House.
• Shade learned that Sister Devlin was expanding Snake Heart Hospitals across cities around the Pantanal Great Swamp with the auction house’s help.
• Helen and Grace offered to help guard Shade’s home from Jack the Thief, but Shade declined because they had not fully recovered and the Relic grew stronger against powerful opponents.

Shade gave the Nun a vine containing spiritual toxins and returned to Tobesk, where he prepared for Jack the Thief’s predicted attack and set out for Leisha’s Reading Salon at the Seer Association. The salon began gathering guests in a room overlooking Yodel Palace as the city increased its security.

• Shade gave the Nun the vine containing spiritual toxins, then Miss Swift threw him a Disguise Rune Stone as he left Middlesburg.
• Shade warned Dorothy to protect herself and Mia at home, and Dorothy promised to stay by the Cat and keep the Night Watchman near the fireplace.
• Dorothy saw Shade off with the Detective Hamilton Story Collection as he left for the salon on the twenty-seventh day of the Month of Frost's Descent.
• Shade noticed extra patrols and Ring Arcanists on Silver Cross Avenue as The Church prepared for Jack the Thief’s possible attack on Yodel Palace.
• Shade arrived at the Seer Association, where Leisha welcomed guests in a second-floor room overlooking Yodel Palace.

Shade attended a Reading Salon at the Seer Association, where Princess Margaret arranged a private meeting to thank him for his help during the Great Fog. He slipped away from the gathering and met her at the eastern stairway, leaving their conversation just beginning.

• Shade confirmed that seven Ring Arcanists disguised as Seer Association employees were guarding Princess Margaret at the salon.
• Margaret sent Shade a note asking him to meet her at 6:55 on the empty eastern stairway, and Sir Prisha delivered it while discussing books and mathematics with Shade.
• Shade learned more about Sir Prisha’s scholarly background and continued talking with him until Margaret left the room.
• Shade spilled juice on his shoes as an excuse to leave, then went to the eastern stairway where Margaret was waiting.
• Shade greeted Margaret and called her by her name before correcting himself to address her as Miss Mary.

Shade accepted Princess Margaret Anjou’s commission to find a Sorceress near Saint Derain Square, in exchange for information about Sir Prisha. At Leisha’s Reading Salon, Margaret mentioned a rumor about the ancient Prisha family, and Shade joined Sir Prisha and Princess Angelina in conversation.

• Margaret asked Shade to find a mathematically skilled Sorceress near Saint Derain Square, and Shade accepted the commission without payment.
• Shade asked Margaret for information about Sir Prisha; she agreed to visit Shade on Sunday and mentioned a rumor that the Prisha family had once been an ancient Ring Arcanist family.
• Margaret asked who had taught Shade mathematics, and Shade said he had taught himself after becoming a Ring Arcanist.
• Leisha opened the Reading Salon, where Margaret shared Poems of Dreams, Baron Lalaire shared Lightning on the Summit, and Sir Prisha discussed Song of the Moon.
• Princess Angelina and Lisa Eisberg joined Shade and Sir Prisha, and Shade suggested the name Jenkins Williamte for a fictional detective.

Shade and Luvia assessed the growing dangers surrounding the Reading Salon, and Luvia’s divination suggested that a powerful game-related relic might appear. Meanwhile, Iluna kept watch on Silver Cross Avenue, unaware of what the night would bring.

• Shade slipped away from the Reading Salon to meet Luvia, who warned him that the Church and several factions were watching for Jack the Thief.
• Luvia divined that a game-related relic might appear, then kissed Shade before he returned to the salon.
• Iluna took up her post at an important intersection and watched the street as part of the operation.
• Iluna spotted two black cats, thought about Shade and her detective novels, and continued keeping watch.

Iluna discovered Miss Pawo and the Truth Society agents on Silver Cross Avenue, then fought a false body of Pawo while Church reinforcements arrived. As the agents fled, Iluna and the others pursued them to the Seer Association, where the chase continued inside the building.

• Iluna used her divine eye to spot Miss Pawo, a professor-like man, and a die-tossing young man, then alerted Church Ring Arcanists and attacked them.
• Miss Pawo used the Smallville Codex to block Iluna’s Sunlight Guns and escaped toward the rooftops with the two men as Church forces closed in.
• Iluna slowed Miss Pawo with Balance and trapped her false body in silver thorns before Church Arcanists struck it with their spells.
• Miss Green warned Iluna that trouble had broken out elsewhere in Tobesk, while the group discovered two wounded Nature Church Arcanists on the rooftop.
• Iluna, Miss Green, and Mr. Modrow pursued the professor and the cultist to the Seer Association, where a playing card wounded the professor before the pair crashed through a window into a lit room.

Shade sensed that Iluna was fighting outside the Seer Association, but he stayed at the salon until Professor Onse and a Mr. Misfortune cultist crashed into the room and activated the Angel Level Relic, Dice Story Collection. Iluna joined them at the table as the third player, while Miss Green protected the princesses.

• Shade sensed Iluna fighting outside and excused himself from the salon, then returned to finish his detective story before leaving again.
• Professor Onse and an injured young cultist broke through the salon window, and Professor Onse's spell put the ordinary guests to sleep.
• Iluna, Miss Green, Mr. Modrow, and eight Creation Church Ring Arcanists surrounded the intruders, but the cultist activated the Dice Story Collection and isolated the room.
• Professor Onse explained that the relic would create a real adventure story and that its three players would take part as protagonists; he said the game was part of a Keeper of Secrets' Trial.
• Miss Green declined to play because she had to protect the princesses, while Iluna accepted the decision and sat at the table's south side.

Iluna joined Professor Onse and Dion in a rule-bound dice game that required each player to control an ordinary person in the surrounding area. She chose Shade, whose character sheet revealed far more than an ordinary human’s abilities, and resolved to hide his true strength as the game began.

• The Keeper of Secrets introduced the dice story, and Onse and Dion each paid a Coin of Wisdom to choose a First Ring Arcanist at the Golden October Restaurant as a character.
• With the hourglass running out, Iluna considered her options and chose her friend Shade Suellen Hamilton, who was somewhere on the Seer Association’s floor.
• The Keeper of Secrets produced character parchments and a detailed model of Yodel Palace and Saint Derain Square to start the game.
• Iluna read Shade’s parchment and discovered his Fourth Ring Arcanist abilities, then decided she needed to conceal that he was a Ring Arcanist.

Shade learned that the Angel Level Relic Dice Story Collection had drawn him into Iluna’s game and used Luvia’s advice to act like an ordinary detective. As the players began rolling checks to pursue Jack the Thief on Silver Cross Avenue, Iluna reached the point of revealing Shade’s personal charm bonus.

• Leisha swapped into Dorothy’s body and decided to go to Shade and tell him what had happened.
• Shade told Luvia that an unseen force was manipulating his thoughts, and she identified the Dice Story Collection as the cause and explained its rules.
• Luvia gave Shade the Tarot Card “Divination: Game,” and Shade went to investigate Silver Cross Avenue while the relic kept others from noticing him.
• Professor Onse and the Cultist listed the symbolic items carried by their characters, and Iluna found that Shade had gained bonuses from his Rhodes card deck and Luvia’s divination card game.
• The players rolled dice to pass a street check; Professor Onse and the Cultist succeeded, while Iluna began reading Shade’s personal charm bonus.

Shade realized the relic’s rules did not bind him and followed the two Ring Arcanists who had used Dice Story Collection to locate Jack the Thief. As he walked along Silver Cross Avenue, Dorothy ran toward him carrying a cat, which noticed Shade even though she could not.

• Professor Onse and Dion combined their investigation scores to pass the check and reveal Jack the Thief’s location near Yodel Palace.
• Iluna tried to direct Shade toward the thief and the other Story Characters, but the Keeper of Secrets rejected her orders because Shade had no reason to act.
• Shade reasoned that the other Story Characters were Whisper Element-affected Ring Arcanists and decided to follow them homeward without treating himself as bound by the game’s rules.
• Shade followed Qiaogeli Diwusi and Lidiya Penggeluo along Silver Cross Avenue as they entered a sneaking state near the thief’s suspected location.
• Dorothy ran toward Shade carrying a cat and a sword, and the cat noticed him even though Dorothy could not.

Shade and Leisha followed the events of the Dice Story Collection while Jack the Thief headed toward Saint Derain Square. On the way, a cat-related relic surrounded them, but Little Mia drove it away before Shade and Leisha could act.

• Shade told Dorothy to keep walking with Mia and asked what was happening inside the relic; Dorothy reported that Iluna Bayes's opponents had found Jack the Thief.
• Leisha explained that Jack was heading for Saint Derain Square after the Truth Society's High-Ring Arcanist and cultists passed a difficult check, while Qiaogeli Diwusi and Lidiya Penggeluo followed him.
• Shade and Leisha headed toward Saint Derain Square, planning to identify Jack's target and prepare for a possible fight.
• The lights and sounds vanished as a cat-related relic surrounded Shade and Leisha with a mass of Wild Cats, suppressing Leisha's powers.
• Little Mia stared down the cats, and the lights returned as the colony retreated and the relic disappeared.