Chapter Summaries

Shade and Luvia discussed the strange medal Stone Osenfott had asked him to find, while Shade promised to investigate the man without involving Luvia. The next morning, Shade and Iluna welcomed Miss Galina back to Tobesk, where Iluna demonstrated her attempt to wield Sun Power.

• Shade told Luvia he would investigate Stone Osenfott on Saturday and warned her not to contact him.
• Shade and Luvia left the warehouse, and Luvia asked him to bring Mia home before they returned to the hotel.
• Shade and Iluna waited at a tea room near Tobesk Station and welcomed Miss Galina when she arrived with Tifa.
• Miss Galina visited her nephew, then returned to her manor and celebrated with Shade and Iluna over lunch before giving them gifts.
• Miss Galina asked Iluna to demonstrate her progress, and Iluna showed a glowing sphere containing power she had drawn from the Sun using Empty Bottle Fruits.

Shade spent the day with Miss Galina and Iluna, then declined Miss Galina’s intimate invitation because she still had reservations and he had promised Leisha to tell her. Later, Shade asked Tifa to identify an old maid’s dress linked to Osenfott Manor, but Miss Galina interrupted their flirtation before they could become intimate.

• Iluna showed Miss Galina and Shade the small ball of light she had learned to summon, and Shade updated Miss Galina about the Guardians of Randall River Valley.
• Miss Galina warned Shade not to trust the Guardians completely, and Iluna left for a church meeting before dinner.
• Miss Galina invited Shade to spend the night in her room, but Shade declined because she was not ready and he had promised Leisha to tell her if anything happened.
• Tifa told Shade that Miss Galina had felt threatened by his closeness with Miss Benanis and said she would signal him when Miss Galina was ready.
• Tifa identified the maid’s dress from Shade’s book as a style popular around Common Calendar years 400 to 800, leading Shade to connect it to the period when the Stoneville Kingdom was destroyed.
• Shade and Tifa began embracing, but Miss Galina entered the room and interrupted them.

Shade learned that Sylvia’s synthetic fiber experiment had succeeded and spent the night with Miss Galina and Mia before traveling to Randall River Valley City. He gave Miss Benanis the Earth Power Statue and heard about the Church’s coming operation, then discussed Princess Angelina and her birthday banquet.

• Miss Galina told Shade that Sylvia’s textile investment had succeeded and teased him about noticing her new stockings; embarrassed, she left with Tifa.
• Shade admitted to Mia that he regretted refusing Miss Galina a little but intended to honor his promises, and Mia said a Great Witch had given him her heart.
• Shade traveled with Miss Galina toward Yodel Palace, then went to Randall River Valley City and gave Miss Benanis the Stone Masons Association documents and the Earth Power Statue.
• Miss Benanis told Shade that the Church planned a major operation against local evil-god believers and asked him to stay away from Randall River Valley that weekend.
• Shade told Miss Benanis about Princess Angelina Cavendish and her wish for freedom, and she teased him about his relationship with the princess and asked what statue he planned to give her.

Shade presented Vanessa Benanis with a statue he had recreated, and she kissed him to thank him. Later, Doctor Schneider tested Shade’s medal with a Demonic Potion, which darkened on contact and suggested the medal was connected to a demon.

• Shade restored the statue and showed it to Vanessa Benanis, who praised its artistry and said it would make a suitable birthday gift for a princess.
• Vanessa questioned Shade about his honesty and his meeting with Galina, then kissed him to thank him for the statue.
• At the weekly meeting, Shade asked Doctor Schneider to check a medal he and Luvia had found at the Stone Masons Association.
• Doctor Schneider used Demonic Potion on Shade and Mia, and both tests glowed, indicating a low chance of demonic corruption.
• Doctor Schneider tested the medal, and the potion darkened on its surface, alarming them both.

Shade and the doctor discussed the demon tied to Stone Osenfott and planned how to uncover its identity without alerting it. The doctor taught Shade the Thaumaturgy Vision Demon so he could gather clues during another visit to Osenfott Manor.

• Shade described his encounters with Stone Osenfott, and the doctor concluded that Osenfott had likely made a contract with a powerful demon.
• The doctor warned that the demon’s plans might involve a century-old conspiracy and possibly Demon Silver connected to the royal family.
• Shade and the doctor agreed they needed to identify the demon and locate its hiding place before confronting it, and that Shade should contact Osenfott again.
• The doctor told Shade to keep the Night Watchman and Demon Hunting Seal hidden from Osenfott until the final battle.
• The doctor taught Shade Thaumaturgy: Vision Demon, which revealed symbols and illusions when Shade approached demonic power.

Shade prepared to investigate the suspected Demon behind Stone Osenfott while gathering ingredients to learn Vision Demon, then helped Dorothy get ready for Angelina’s birthday banquet. The chapter ended with Shade trying to bathe a struggling Little Mia before the evening’s royal-palace banquet.

• Doctor Schneider explained Vision Demon and gave Shade a recipe that required actual Demon blood, while warning him to consider Haila Osenfott as a possible mastermind.
• Shade went to Coldwater Port for ingredients, but a shortage of Blue Star Grass sent him to Middlesburg, where Grace and Helen supplied the materials and discussed modifying the Butterfly Summoning Flute to summon them.
• Shade spent Saturday evening with Dorothy, then prepared with her for Angelina’s Sunday birthday banquet at Yodel Palace.
• Shade and Dorothy collected a gold leaf-shaped bookmark for Angelina, and Dorothy gathered her gown and accessories for the banquet.
• Shade caught Little Mia with the Imprisoning Halo and carried the bound cat toward the bathroom for its first bath of 1854.

Shade attended Princess Angelina Cavendish’s seventeenth birthday banquet with Dorothy, carrying a statue as her gift. After Director Anlos assigned him to assess three potential suitors for Angelina, Shade arrived at Yodel Palace and encountered one of them, Daniel Philip.

• Shade washed Orange Cat Miya and prepared with Dorothy for the banquet, bringing the Time Key Emilia had given him.
• Director Anlos asked Shade to make contact with three potential suitors for Angelina and report his impressions, warning him that Daniel Philip might be hostile because of his father’s conflict with Miss Galina.
• Dorothy suggested Angelina could write the report herself, and Shade agreed that this would also help him prevent an arranged marriage.
• Shade and Dorothy arrived at Yodel Palace, where they discussed birthdays and Shade said he would count the day he met the Doctor as his own.
• Shade gave Angelina an artistic statue and Dorothy presented her with a gold bookmark.
• Daniel Philip, one of Angelina’s potential suitors and the son of Marquis Philip, approached Shade and Dorothy.

At Princess Angelina’s birthday banquet, Shade presented her with an ancient statue and met the three possible candidates for her marriage engagement. After Angelina thanked him and agreed to write his report, Tifa summoned him on behalf of her Miss.

• Shade answered Daniel Philip’s provocation by presenting Angelina with an ancient statue that impressed the guests.
• Shade met Raphael Birmingham and Henry Ma Faer, forming initial impressions of all three candidates and noticing that Henry seemed close to a young woman.
• Angelina thanked her guests, and the birthday banquet officially began with music and dancing.
• Angelina led Shade and Dorothy to a private lounge, where Shade told her about Director Anlos’s task and she offered to write his report.
• Tifa came out of a nearby room and asked Shade to speak with her Miss.

Shade met with Miss Galina after Angelina’s birthday banquet and learned the results of the Church’s operation against the Earth cultists. He left to join Leisha and Dorothy for their planned reading, while the Blood Spirit School’s absence left the Randall River Valley threat unresolved.

• Angelina thanked Miss Galina for attending her birthday banquet, and Miss Galina said she would support Shade’s efforts to help the princess.
• Miss Galina reported that the Church had killed the cultist with Earth Power Avatar and recovered ritual documents, including clues about the Stone Heart Demon’s sacrifices.
• Shade and Miss Galina discussed how the Earth Mother God’s seasonal aspects might connect the Chosen One rituals, and Shade insisted they prepare despite the possibility that fate would guide the chosen candidates.
• Miss Galina revealed that fewer cultists than expected had been found and that no Blood Spirit School members appeared in the roundup.
• Miss Galina sent Shade away to join Leisha and Dorothy for their reading, then wondered aloud whether she should be more proactive in pursuing him.

Shade was pulled away from his private reading session with Leisha when Princess Angelina reported a murder at Yodel Palace and asked him to investigate. He identified the victim as Daniel Philip and began examining the crime scene, while Tifa served as his assistant.

• Leisha welcomed Shade into a private room for their reading session, while Tifa watched from across the corridor.
• Angelina hurried to Miss Galina and reported that a murder had occurred at the palace; Miss Galina sent her to fetch Shade.
• Angelina told Shade that King Larus III wanted him to solve the murder discreetly before the banquet ended.
• Shade learned that the victim was Daniel Philip, the man he had argued with at the banquet entrance.
• Shade arrived at the gift-storage room and found Daniel dead beside a bloodstained bronze swan statue.
• After Tifa vouched for Shade's whereabouts, he put on gloves and began examining Daniel's body.

Shade investigated Daniel Philip’s murder at Yodel Palace and used the bloodstains and the crowd’s movements to narrow the suspects to three men. He began a final interrogation, claiming he already knew the killer’s identity, but none of the suspects confessed.

• Shade examined Daniel Philip’s body and the heavy bronze statue, then concluded that the killer was an acquaintance, likely a sturdy man shorter than the victim.
• Shade found fresh blood behind the door and reenacted the discovery, deducing that the killer had hidden there before blending into the crowd.
• With Princess Angelina’s help, Shade questioned fifteen people and identified Raphael Birmingham, Henry Ma Faer, and George Venn as the most suspicious.
• Shade questioned the three men together and gave them one last chance to confess, invoking his reputation as Detective Hamilton, but none of them spoke.

Shade exposed Raphael Birmingham as Daniel Philip’s murderer at Princess Angelina Cavendish’s birthday banquet, then helped settle on a story that would keep the scandal from drawing too much public attention. The case was closed, though Birmingham’s true motive became known to those present.

• Henry Ma Faer admitted he had gone to the corridor to meet Emily Churchill, and the two embraced after he declared his love for her.
• Shade cleared George Wayne of suspicion and used Mia to test the two men who remained under suspicion.
• Mia reacted when Shade aimed her at Raphael Birmingham, and Shade’s questioning prompted Birmingham to reveal that he knew which hand had blood on it.
• Shade defeated Birmingham when he attacked, while George admitted he had gone to the corridor to spy on the banquet’s female guests.
• Shade proposed a false motive for the murder, but Birmingham confessed he had killed Daniel Philip because Daniel was blackmailing him over an outside lover and his pursuit of Princess Angelina.
• Shade declared the case closed, and Angelina praised his performance at her birthday banquet.

After solving Angelina’s murder case, Shade entered the Time Corridor using Emilia’s Time Key and arrived in a rain-soaked Eternal Night City in Year 3028. He escaped the encroaching darkness by entering a Dragon Maid Cafe, where he found Fiona Drago.

• Shade said goodbye to Tifa and used Emilia’s Time Key after Leisha and Dorothy had not yet returned.
• Father of Infinite Tree gave Shade a trial to help mortals escape the Eternal Night Maze and uncover the truth behind the curtain, with the Black Night Ling Rune as a reward.
• Shade emerged in an empty city where darkness swallowed the streets and hurried into the Dragon Maid Cafe for shelter.
• A red-haired maid greeted Shade, and he recognized her as Fiona Drago.

Shade found Fiona Drago trapped as a maid in the Dragon Maid Cafe and tried to buy her freedom by paying with light. As the Black Tank drained his power, he awakened Divine Embers, which made the tank crack.

• Shade recognized Fiona Drago in the Dragon Maid Cafe and avoided her attack by scattering into Red Butterflies.
• Shade ordered the menu’s listing for permanent ownership of Fiona, and she brought him a Black Tank to collect payment in light.
• Shade used moonlight and a powerful Light Spell to feed the tank while experimenting with new shapes for his light thaumaturgies.
• As Shade’s spirit dwindled, he thrust his glowing hand into the tank and unleashed Divine Embers through his cracked skin.
• The Black Tank trembled and developed spiderweb fractures under the light of Shade’s Divine Embers.

Shade used Permanent Domination to free Fiona Drago from outside control, then collapsed from spiritual exhaustion and low blood sugar. After eating, he reunited with Fiona and learned that she had been sent to Eternal Night City to find the throne of the God of the Black Night.

• Shade claimed permanent ownership of Fiona Drago and ordered the café to restore her completely, removing all control imposed by anyone or anything else.
• Fiona returned to normal and caught Shade when he collapsed, then offered him her tail to eat while he recovered.
• Shade used Fiona's Housekeeping Servant to summon food and tea, ate, and greeted Fiona as an old friend from their adventures four years earlier.
• Fiona told Shade that Eternal Night City lay in the Far North, where they had to avoid total darkness outdoors and enter buildings when their lights went out.
• Fiona recalled that her mission was to cross the city and find the throne of the God of the Black Night, while Shade had only twenty-three minutes left.

Shade learned how Fiona had become trapped in the café while searching Eternal Night City for parts of a compass that could guide her to the throne. They bought a teaspoon with Shade’s light, then prepared to leave the café for the Clock Shop despite the impenetrable night outside.

• Fiona told Shade that she had lost most of her supplies, been corrupted by the night, and become controlled by the café while searching for three compass parts.
• Fiona showed Shade the café menu, and they rejected a city map that required payment of a special Destiny.
• Shade and Fiona found a precious teaspoon that required light as payment and agreed that Shade would pay for it.
• Shade used his Light Spell to satisfy the café’s price, depleted his spirit, and retrieved the silver teaspoon from the Black Tank.
• Fiona helped Shade recover with a biscuit and coffee mixed with holy water, then they planned to go to the Clock Shop even though the night blocked the exit.

Shade and Fiona left the café to find the Midnight Clock Shop, using a black veil to travel through Eternal Night City. As they ran through the night by candlelight, the darkness began to overwhelm Shade.

• Fiona used Miss Feliana’s black veil to travel with Shade and bought three Everlasting Candles by giving blood.
• Fiona broke down in Shade’s arms, and Shade promised to stay with her and get her safely out of the city.
• Shade and Fiona emerged in an alley, encountered an Inverted Soul, and retreated before using the veil again to reach a street near the Midnight Clock Shop.
• Fiona lit an Everlasting Candle, and the pair ran hand in hand toward the shop as the candle’s protective light began to fade.
• The night drained Shade’s strength and filled him with unnatural drowsiness as it called him to join it.

Shade and Fiona survived the night long enough to reach a clock shop, where they found the Lost Clock Wheel but learned it required Sand of Time tainted by the night. Shade promised to return with the material and left Fiona sheltered in the shop, where she began sensing the traces of time.

• Shade and Fiona resisted the illusions and darkness as their candles burned out, and Shade reached the clock shop after briefly being touched by something in the night.
• Shade gained insight into Night and Shadow, then entered the clock shop with Fiona and found a catalog listing the Lost Clock Wheel.
• Fiona and Shade learned that the Lost Clock Wheel required four ounces of Sand of Time tainted by the night, which Fiona had lost.
• Shade built Fiona a sheltered campsite, promised to return with the needed material, and left through the White Fog.
• Fiona saw the White Fog and the Destiny Ring and Golden Stairway appeared behind her as she sensed the traces of time.

Shade returned from the past and met with Luvia, the Witch, and Miss Lathers to discuss his recent discoveries and investigate auction items that might relate to the Heart of the Earth. The chapter ended with Shade and Luvia meeting Emilia at the Bountiful Earth Inn.

• Shade returned from Eternal Night City, recovered his strength with the Perfume Bottle, and was pulled into a reading salon by Leisha and Dorothy.
• Shade gave Luvia a sapphire pendant and told her he had met Miss Fiona Drago and encountered the God of Black Night.
• Shade and Luvia met the Witch and Miss Lathers at the Wilde Opera House, where Miss Benanis shared the locations of three auction items connected to the Heart of the Earth.
• Shade promised to investigate the statue held by Stone Osenfott, the antique-lock key held by Earl Granger, and the ceramic vase at the Randall River Valley City Sculpture Hall.
• Shade and Luvia waited at the Bountiful Earth Inn and welcomed Emilia Sinode when she arrived alone.

Shade met Emilia and Luvia at the inn, where Emilia shared Academy information about Randall River Valley and gave them protective amulets. He then visited Osenfott Manor to investigate the ancient Demon, discovering through Vision Demon that it was linked to snow and that the strange maid had stone-colored skin.

• Emilia told Shade and Luvia that the Academy was gathering information about Randall River Valley and might send Astronomy College professors there, then warned Shade that she had sensed a Demon nearby.
• Emilia gave Shade and Luvia Unicorn-hair Evil Protection Amulets and agreed to avoid wandering around the city apart from her weekly visits.
• Shade left for Osenfott Manor on Tuesday morning, where the Old Butler told him Stone Osenfott had gone to the city and would return at noon.
• Haila Osenfott received Shade, who secretly used Vision Demon and saw snowflakes drifting around her, suggesting the Demon was connected to snow.
• Haila said Stone Osenfott always won, and Shade used Vision Demon again to see that the maid's skin was bluish gray like stone.