Chapter Summaries

Shade stopped the Cavendish Twin Princes from disrupting time, and their umbilical cords became vessels for their Miracle Elements. After returning home from Yodel Palace, he told Dorothy and Luvia what had happened, while the fourth Chosen One candidate was dealt with.

• Shade learned that the adult princes were named Gudrian and Lorian, then accepted their surrender and caught their umbilical cords after the World Tree's power stripped away their Miracle Elements.
• Shade awoke in Duke Galina's office and told Galina and Angelina the newborn princes should be named Lorian and Gudrian; he asked Galina to obtain their umbilical cords.
• The Church examined Yodel Palace after its missing day ended, and King Larus III agreed that its occupants would undergo examinations before leaving.
• Tifa delivered the princes' umbilical cords to Shade's home, where Dorothy and Luvia confirmed they were safe and Shade found them glowing with Miracle Elements.
• Over breakfast, Shade recounted the events at Yodel Palace, and Luvia said there were no clues yet to divine anything about the eighth Chosen One.

After breakfast, Shade learned that Luvia and Dorothy had met Miss Goode while he was trapped at Yodel Palace, and that Little Mia would stay with him for now. Their account left him wondering whether Goode’s unusually comforting presence meant she had a special ability.

• Shade explained that the two umbilical cords resisted time effects and stabilized time, though he had not decided how to use them.
• Luvia suggested that Shade could make another Chosen One's Arrow to obtain a candidate’s power, and Dorothy speculated that the next First Candidate might be a woman.
• Luvia and Dorothy told Shade that Miss Goode had visited the previous morning and spent about an hour and a half talking with them.
• Shade learned that Little Mia had willingly settled on Miss Goode’s lap and that Goode was satisfied with how he had cared for the cat.
• Dorothy and Luvia said Miss Goode had no time to care for Little Mia while her hometown was being rebuilt, so the cat would remain with Shade.
• Luvia and Dorothy described Miss Goode as elegant and exceptionally warm, and Shade wondered whether she had a special ability.

Shade examined his suspicions about Mia Goode after missing her visit to Tobesk, but chose not to pursue her while the next Chosen One's story might begin. As Harvest Moon continued, the Battle of Moon Bay's spoils were distributed, several of Shade's companions advanced, and Sister Devlin reminded him to visit her for more training.

• Dorothy showed Shade a portrait of Miss Goode, whose face reminded him of the woman he had seen in the Sun Altar illusion, while Dorothy and Luvia argued that the Goode family—not Mia—might explain the mystery.
• Dorothy showed Shade seven ordinary antiques Miss Goode had left as gifts, and Shade declined Luvia's suggestion to catch up with her because he was concerned about the eighth Chosen One.
• Shade asked Priest Augustus to keep Angel's Right Arm, and the priest said he would prepare potions for him after advancing to the fifth ring.
• After the Battle of Moon Bay spoils were divided, Shade returned Mafala's Mirror to the Countess, gave the Council the Star Sword Stone, and gave Miss Belinder the Hafana Dragon Body Stone while keeping the Higgs Dragon Head Stone.
• Doctor Schneider and Iluna advanced to the ninth ring, Dorothy and Leisha reached the seventh ring, and Galina told Shade that Angelina was preparing to advance to the second ring.
• Galina brought Shade a letter from Sister Devlin, who urged him to visit the Mountain Top Sacrificial Ground to continue practicing combat and flame power.

Shade’s life settled into a peaceful autumn routine until Old John summoned him to the pawnshop with a new Time Key, a time-stopping wooden coin, and Lucky Soy Milk. The chapter left Shade equipped with rare relics as he awaited the end of his punishment for using normal Time Keys.

• Sister Devlin gained new power from her insight into the First Fire, and Shade’s fire spells grew stronger as he trained with her.
• Shade spent the latter half of the Harvest Moon studying and living quietly in Tobesk while Leisha and Dorothy delayed their Red Butterfly Day celebration.
• After the banquet at Yodel Palace, Leisha and Dorothy spent the night at Shade’s home, and Shade went to Old John’s pawnshop the next morning.
• Old John offered Shade the relic Instant, a wooden coin that stopped time for one second but aged its user five years and could permanently erase an unprepared user.
• Shade bought Instant for seven hundred pounds and received Lucky Soy Milk, a Relic Derivative that could improve luck but should not be consumed twice within a year.

After the Academy reported that Miss Danist had been unreachable for three days, Shade learned she had gone to Creekwood Town, now called Vesta Woodland. Worried that she was in danger, he decided to travel there that night and seek Luvia’s help the next morning.

• Old John sold Shade Lucky Soy Milk and gave him a document bag of rumors about time anomalies.
• Dorothy and Leisha left after lunch, and Shade spent the rest of the day at home before taking Little Mia out to dinner.
• Professor Norton contacted Shade and told him the Academy had been unable to reach Miss Danist for three days; she had gone to Vesta Woodland, formerly Creekwood Town.
• Professor Norton said that if Miss Danist did not return within three months, Shade would have to take over as library administrator.
• Shade decided to go to Creekwood Town that night, establish a waypoint, and ask Luvia for help the next morning.
• Shade gathered the Lucky Soy Milk and other supplies, took Night Watchman, and prepared to leave.

Shade used the Space Labyrinth to reach a hidden passage beneath a giant tree in Vesta Woodland, then flew toward Creekwood Town. The city lights remained just as distant, leaving him to suspect that something was interfering with his progress.

• Shade sacrificed a White Stone Crystal and discovered a new signpost leading to a hidden space in Vesta Woodland.
• Shade found an Elven lantern and a holy emblem of the White Sacred Tree, then left them behind and opened a Hidden Passage.
• Shade climbed through the underground passage and used Door Key to unlock an exit in the hollow of a giant tree.
• Shade emerged into moonlit woodland, memorized the location, and flew toward Creekwood Town.
• Shade realized that the city lights were not getting any closer, despite his flight, and wondered why his luck had worsened.

Shade became trapped in a section of Vesta Woodland that warped directions, but he met a Moon Creek Clan elf in a flower clearing who gave him a way out. She asked him to retrieve an item from the Local Black Market, and Shade set off toward Creekwood Town wearing her guiding wreath.

• Shade used the Source of Chaos to make slow progress through the forest after discovering that it kept him from reaching Creekwood Town.
• Shade found a flower clearing where a golden-haired elf was tending Jade Star Flowers and learned that the region rejected the entry and departure of living things.
• Shade gave the elf a false name, admitted he had lied, and asked how to travel safely through the woodland.
• The elf agreed to guide Shade if he retrieved an item from the Local Black Market, giving him the entrance information and trade password when he returned.
• The elf gave Shade a wreath that would point the way out and warned him to revere Vesta Woodland and Creekwood Town.

Shade left the mysterious elf’s enchanted forest and reached Vesta City, where he found the hidden black market inside a photo studio. He asked the bartender about retrieving the elf’s goods and learned the market was busy with currency trading.

• Shade accepted the flower wreath from the mysterious elf, who asked him to retrieve her goods from the black market and return to her afterward.
• Shade used the wreath to cross the forest quickly, then boarded a train and arrived in Vesta City.
• Shade surveyed the quiet, well-landscaped city and went looking for the black market and news of Miss Danist.
• Shade followed the elf’s directions to Flushing Photo Studio, tapped the moving clown photograph, and entered a hidden tavern through a space-transfer Relic.
• The bartender explained that currency exchange had become the black market’s main trade, and Shade said the elf had asked him to retrieve goods, repeating her clue about Hundred Flowers Fruit Wine.

Shade inspected an antique elven fairy tale slab in Vesta City, then asked a barmaid about the city’s history and local Ring Arcanist groups. He learned that the Hermits of the Forest rarely entered the city and heard rumors of past supernatural incidents, while Vesta remained known for its music festivals and Golden Music Hall.

• Shade examined the stone slab bearing the elven fairy tale “Crystal Light” and confirmed it was a useful antique for research.
• Shade posted a request to buy Special Coins but found none for sale, and learned that the Hermits of the Forest only occasionally sent members into Vesta City.
• Shade paid the barmaid for local stories and heard rumors of a Dragon and an ancient Evil Spirit Demon in the Creekwood Town era.
• The barmaid told Shade that a Blood Moon and red sky had appeared over Creekwood Town around Common Calendar 1760, causing considerable damage.
• The barmaid described Vesta City as peaceful and told Shade that its autumn music festivals drew performers to the Vesta Golden Music Hall.

Shade sought Luvia’s help finding Miss Danist, whose disappearance resisted the first divination. The later readings suggested she was lost in time and pointed Shade toward an inn, an owl, and a snowy forest.

• Shade learned that Vesta City’s Moon Dance Festival had been a tradition since the Creekwood Town Era.
• Luvia’s first divination with King's Egg failed to reveal a way to find Miss Danist.
• Luvia used King's Egg again and learned that Miss Danist did not exist in the present, but Shade could bring her back safely at any time.
• Shade suspected Miss Danist had fallen into a time-related trouble and asked Luvia to use Moment to find clues.
• Luvia’s divination revealed a large inn with a golden accordion sign and a plump owl, which she identified as a messenger leading to Miss Danist.
• Luvia performed a water divination and saw a forest in the snow.

Shade visited Sianode and agreed to help her recover scattered ancient elven arrows in exchange for information about Vesta Woodland. He then traveled to Vesta City and headed for the Accordion Inn, continuing his search for his missing teacher.

• Shade followed a silver-blue flower to Sianode’s Tree House and returned the Crystal Light stone slab.
• Shade asked Sianode about Vesta City and told her he was searching for his powerful missing teacher.
• Sianode offered to share information about Vesta Woodland if Shade collected scattered ancient elven arrows, and Shade accepted her commission.
• Shade traveled to Vesta City and hired a carriage to take him to the Accordion Inn.
• Shade observed Vesta City’s lush streets, numerous music venues, and the Golden Music Hall at its center.

Shade arrived in Vesta City and searched the Accordion Hotel for clues to Miss Danist’s whereabouts. He learned that the inn’s owner, Bennett, was linked to a haunting rumor and to a debt owed to the Mermaid of Moon Bay.

• Shade passed Creekwood Town Conservatory of Music and admired Golden Music Hall on his way to the Accordion Hotel.
• An attendant told Shade the Accordion Hotel was fully booked, so Shade transformed into a Silver Cat and searched its upper floors for clues.
• Finding nothing unusual, Shade returned in human form, ordered lunch, and tipped an attendant to buy local newspapers.
• Shade questioned the attendant about reports of hauntings, and the attendant revealed that strange sounds had come from a broom closet near Rooms 317 and 318.
• Shade recognized Bennett as the man who owed a debt to the Mermaid of Moon Bay, but decided to prioritize finding Miss Danist.

Shade investigated a broom closet cabinet in Vesta City and discovered that it connected unpredictably to the past. After briefly arriving in a tree hollow in 1698 and returning to 1854, he concluded that the cabinet might be linked to Miss Danist’s disappearance, but its workings remained unknown.

• Shade found a peddler’s apple-selling cry coming from the empty lower compartment of the cabinet and noticed it lacked cobwebs.
• Shade summoned Grace and Helen, explained the risk, and had them watch while he climbed inside the cabinet.
• As Grace spoke about ancient temple ruins, her voice faded and Shade found himself in a tree hollow in 1698.
• Shade returned to 1854 after about half a minute, and Grace and Helen confirmed that he had vanished from the cabinet.
• Shade tried the cabinet again for two hours but experienced nothing, then concluded that it connected unpredictably to different points in the past.
• Grace and Helen agreed that they should not move the cabinet until they understood its time-travel effect.

Shade used the cabinet and the Spacetime Spirit Rune to open a doorway through time, but the burned man who emerged attacked him and escaped. The man vanished through the ceiling after leaving his bound leg behind, and Shade was left without answers about his identity or what lay beyond the door.

• A voice from the cabinet mentioned the Accordion Hotel, Room 321, prompting Shade to find a notebook documenting seven disappearances at the hotel.
• Shade and the sisters connected three dates in the notebook to the cabinet’s time links and suspected the voice came from someone in 1763.
• Shade tested the Youthful Immortality Leaf and Time Keys, then projected his Spacetime Spirit Rune onto the cabinet and made the Black Time Key turn.
• Shade opened the cabinet to a sunlit doorway, and a severely burned man wearing an Emerald Ring crawled out and cast Time Stop.
• The man attacked Shade, used time reversal to escape the Great Sin Chains, then fled through the ceiling after abandoning his bound right leg.

Shade and the sisters opened a distorted passage through time after killing a time-wielding Ring Arcanist, and Shade traveled alone to the winter of 1763 to search for the missing woman. He arrived in an unfamiliar estate and discovered that his Witch badge reacted to an owl on the study windowsill.

• A burned-faced Ring Arcanist attacked Shade in frozen time, but Shade killed him with a strike of bloody light while Grace and Helen watched from a rooftop.
• Grace and Helen explained that they had recovered from the time stop and killed the stranger, and Shade stored the corpse before reopening the cabinet with a normal Time Key.
• The cabinet revealed three possible dates and warned that the passage would collapse after two uses; Shade chose the winter of 1763 and exchanged blood with Grace and Helen as a safeguard.
• Shade stepped through the cabinet and arrived in a noble study on a snowy afternoon in 1763, separated from Grace and Helen.
• Shade felt his Witch badge grow hot and realized that the plump owl on the windowsill was the only other living creature in the room.

Shade traveled through time to find Miss Danist, who had been stranded in the past in her eighteen-year-old body, and brought her back to 1854. He returned with Danist and her owl, while Grace and Helen reminded him of the price he owed them.

• Shade followed Miss Danist's owl through the snowy town and forest, then found Danist preparing a ritual in a clearing.
• Danist explained that she had arrived in the past a month earlier, returned to age eighteen, and lost the strength she had gained later in life.
• Shade and Danist returned to the manor study and used the Time Key to travel back through the cabinet passage.
• Shade pulled Danist into the present as the passage began to reject her, and naming the date and time completed her return to 1854.
• Grace and Helen appeared, reminded Shade of his agreement to visit Miburg and date them, then vanished.
• Danist asked what Shade had paid to bring her back, and he told her it did not matter as long as she was safe.

Shade rescued Miss Danist from the past and brought her back to Vesta City, where he treated her and examined her Time Curse. Miss Danist and Flora Winslet suspected a larger problem in the Vesta Woodland region, while Shade planned to return the next morning to discuss a solution.

• Miss Danist agreed to tell Shade about another time traveler the next day, and Shade helped her leave the broom closet for her room in the inn.
• Shade gave Miss Danist and her owl Holy Water No. 2 and examined Miss Danist, finding that a mild Time Curse had fixed her body and soul at age eighteen.
• Shade prepared dinner for Miss Danist, left her medicine, and promised to return the next morning with clothes and to discuss her curse.
• After Shade left, the owl revealed herself as Flora Winslet and teased Miss Danist about her feelings toward Shade.
• Miss Danist and Flora discussed their return and suspected that a major problem in the Vesta Woodland region had caused more than an accidental trip through time.

Flora Winslet and Miss Danist discussed their transformations by the Time Curse and planned to seek help from Shade. After Shade identified Flora as the witch he had found, Galina recognized the famous artist and writer, and Shade waited for Luvia and Iluna to arrive so he could explain what had happened.

• Flora Winslet told Miss Danist that the curse had turned her into an owl, while Miss Danist remained eternally eighteen.
• Flora Winslet and Miss Danist decided to contact their respective groups discreetly and see what Shade could do about the curse and the trouble in Vesta City.
• Galina arrived at Shade's home and found him measuring a damaged cabinet with Little Mia inside.
• Shade asked Galina which Witch Council member was in Vesta City, then described the owl he had encountered.
• Galina deduced that the missing witch was Flora, and Shade realized he knew her as the artist and writer Flora Winslet.

Shade discussed Flora Winslet’s artistic career, Death Seat, and transformation magic with Galina, then told Galina, Iluna, and Luvia about the time-travel incident at the Accordion Hotel. He planned to contain the cabinet and meet Flora openly, while Iluna doubted their encounter would be straightforward.

• Galina explained that Flora Winslet, the Eighth Seat and Great Witch of Death, used art to preserve her Soul’s Warmth and was a master of transformation.
• Shade asked whether Flora could transform into a Dragon, and Galina said she had been studying the Dragon Transformation Spell.
• Shade recounted how a time-linked cabinet at the Accordion Hotel had trapped Miss Danist and a witch in the past, and he planned to contain the cabinet until the eighth Chosen One matter was settled.
• Shade said he intended to tell Flora his identity, but Iluna predicted that he and the witch would not simply meet and peacefully coexist.
• Iluna told Shade that Emilia’s weight-loss plan with Little Liana was going well and that Emilia had written to Angelina about gaining two more Brothers.

Shade visited Miss Danist in Vesta City and learned how she had become trapped in 1763 after opening a cabinet in the inn. Her account linked the time passage to the Bennett family and suggested she had been unable to leave the Woodland without losing her chance to return to 1854.

• Luvia's divination with the Thunder God's Wrath coin failed to reveal a way to remove the Time Curse, and she supported Shade's plan to tell Miss Flora Winslet his identity.
• Shade traveled to Vesta City and found Miss Danist recovering in her room while the owl watched him.
• Miss Danist told Shade she had contacted the Academy, concealed her predicament from most of its members, and arranged a month's leave to investigate the curse in Vesta City.
• Miss Danist explained that opening a cabinet in the inn's broom closet had sent her to Baron Bennett's manor in 1763, where Shade later found her.
• Miss Danist said she had spent thirty-seven days exploring the snowbound town and Woodland, but could not contact the Academy or leave the area because she feared she would never return to 1854.