Chapter Summaries

Shade attended the Saint Prayer Festival at Dawn Church with Mia, where he took part in religious ceremonies and delivered a prepared speech. He discovered that the church had commemorated his rescue of Queen Diana in a painting, then asked Priest Augustus to introduce him to the speechwriter.

• Shade traveled with Mia to Dawn Church and joined Priest Augustus for lunch after listening to a sermon.
• Shade gave Priest Augustus the supposed Elixir of Immortality, and the priest said he would need a few days to identify it.
• Shade attended a prayer gathering and watched the baptism of three children during the festival.
• Priest Augustus showed Shade a painting commemorating Shade saving Queen Diana, and said it might remain in the church for decades.
• Shade delivered a speech about God's love for mortals, using her help to memorize and translate it.
• Shade asked Priest Augustus to introduce him to the writer who had prepared the speech.

After completing his Saint Prayer Festival speech, Shade learned from Miss Galina that the Murmuring Chapters had revealed clues to the second Chosen One. He suspected the prophecy referred to the cruise ship he had escaped from, while the Church, Academy, and Council began searching for the Chosen One.

• Priest Augustus praised Shade's speech, and Bishop Owen paid him twenty pounds and arranged a newspaper interview.
• Priest Augustus invited Shade to investigate a possible evil spirit or out-of-control Relic on Thursday, offering a chance to earn credits.
• Miss Galina picked Shade up from the festival and warned him that the Witches of the Council were active and he should stay in Tobesk.
• Miss Galina told Shade that a newly found tablet predicted the second Chosen One would face supernatural danger at sea near a western Old Continent seaport and escape ocean bandits.
• Shade suspected the prophecy referred to the cruise ship he had recently escaped, where a Chosen One might have been aboard.
• Miss Galina explained that the Church, Academy, and Council were searching for the incident described by the prophecy.

Shade learned that the second Chosen One was connected to darkness and that two Blood Spirit School Ring Arcanists might be in Coldwater Port. He told Luvia about the pirate-ship incident and revealed the hidden chamber beneath his house, where she discovered a statue of Primal Rift.

• Miss Galina told Shade that the second Chosen One's power was related to darkness and that two Blood Spirit School Ring Arcanists might arrive in Tobesk from Coldwater Port.
• Miss Galina explained that the Witch Council wanted to capture the two Blood Spirit School members alive, and Shade agreed to help if needed.
• Luvia arrived at Shade's house, and Shade showed her the bag of ten coins and an Omnipotent Currency before sharing what he knew about the second Chosen One.
• Shade told Luvia he had been aboard the cruise ship where a Ring Arcanist auction took place near Coldwater Port and that survivors bore a curse like Mermaid's Song.
• Shade took Luvia into the hidden chamber beneath his house, where she recognized the statue of Primal Rift as an Ancient God.

Shade and Luvia examined the coins from Coldwater Port and used them to divine details about the pirate incident and its Chosen One. They confirmed the incident matched the prophecy and learned the Chosen One was male, while Shade planned to keep investigating.

• Shade told Luvia about the Old Gods Statue and his experiences in Coldwater Port, then asked her to divine whether Professor Manning would find the Doomsday Academic Organization and the information Shade needed.
• Luvia spent an Omnipotent Currency and divined that Professor Manning would find the person Shade sought within the week and bring him the answers.
• Luvia identified the remaining coins as Pirate's Blood Money, God of Death's Atonement Coins, and Colmore Empire Civilization Gold Coins, and Shade set some aside for future divinations.
• Shade used an Atonement Coin to confirm that the pirate incident matched the newly discovered stone tablet's prophecy.
• Luvia spent three Atonement Coins to determine that the Chosen One was male, and reassured Shade that he could not be the Chosen One.

Shade learned that the second Chosen One would remain in Coldwater Port for about a week before traveling to Tobesk, and he went to Coldwater Port to investigate the escaped Ring Arcanists. There, Princess Leisha invited him to visit a Ring Arcanist rumored to have removed the Mermaid Curse.

• Luvia divined that the second Chosen One would stay in Coldwater Port for approximately a week before traveling to Tobesk, and she asked Shade to identify them without making contact right away.
• Shade told Luvia he would investigate the escaped Ring Arcanists in Coldwater Port, using his lead on Mr. Darkness and help from the authorities and Princess Leisha.
• Dorothy stayed at Shade's home to care for Mia while Shade traveled through Sea Cliff Cave to Coldwater Port in the pouring rain.
• Shade met Leisha Cavendish at the Golden Rose Inn and learned that the Church was searching for the Ring Arcanists who had escaped the pirate ship.
• Leisha invited Shade to investigate a local Ring Arcanist who was rumored to have removed the Mermaid Curse, and Shade agreed to go with her.

Shade and Princess Leisha visited the secluded Old Town to meet Mr. Jude, the Ring Arcanist said to have lifted the Mermaid Curse, while posing as a reporter and her assistant. They joined two folklorists from a local academy, and the chapter left them waiting in the gloomy house as their host went to fetch Mr. Jude.

• Leisha arranged a carriage and false identities for the visit, explaining that the Tuna Literary Gazette belonged to her.
• Shade and Leisha traveled to Kezhem Lane, an Old Town area known for disappearances of outsiders.
• They met Professor Katia and Lim Scott, folklorists also visiting Mr. Jude, and continued with them.
• A gloomy house servant let the four visitors inside and told them to wait in the entrance hall while he informed Mr. Jude.
• The visitors waited in the dark, damp mansion, surrounded by unsettling old decor and a storm outside.

Shade, Leisha, and two folklorists visited Mr. Jude to discuss Coldwater Port’s ancient beliefs and the Sea Burial rhyme. While Mr. Jude’s servant tried to lure Shade upstairs alone, Shade discovered a statue covered in crimson aura and heard an ominous Echo about the Sea Burial ritual already being underway.

• Mr. Jude explained that three ancient fishing villages worshipped different evil gods and showed the visitors symbols associated with a human figure, a Mermaid, and a storm.
• Mr. Jude claimed that descendants of the old fishing-village families still lurked in Coldwater Port and that Mermaid worship persisted in the city.
• Shade and Leisha discussed the Sea Burial rhyme with the folklorists, whose ordinary interpretation linked its lines to a Mermaid’s song, pirates, slaughter, and their departure.
• A servant asked Shade to fetch antiques upstairs, but Shade refused to leave Leisha and the scholars offered to accompany him.
• After the servant left to ask Mr. Jude, Shade saw crimson aura covering the broken-arm statue and heard an Echo warning that the Sea Burial ritual had begun and that ordinary people should no longer be lured in.

Shade, Leisha, Professor Katia, and Mr. Scott discovered they had been locked inside Mr. Jude’s study and searched it for clues. Shade opened a protected safe and found a disturbing painting of a Fishmen creature that appeared to blink, leaving Mr. Scott badly shaken.

• Professor Katia and Shade noticed the study was suspicious, then found the door locked from outside and the window unable to open.
• Professor Katia revealed a rapier hidden in his cane, and Shade showed that he carried a permitted revolver before suggesting they search the study.
• Shade found a pistol, spellcasting materials, and business papers in Mr. Jude’s desk, then sliced apart a severed hand that sprang from a drawer.
• Leisha told Shade she had backup nearby and a Steam Bomb, but Shade advised her not to use it unless necessary.
• Shade used Door Key to open a magically protected safe and found an oil painting depicting a monstrous Fishmen creature.
• Mr. Scott cried out that the mermaid in the painting had blinked, and the others waited until Leisha confirmed no one outside had heard him.

Shade, Leisha, Professor Katia, and Mr. Scott discovered that Mr. Jude was connected to the Scarlet Secret Society and escaped his house when its servants attacked. They fled into the rain toward Leisha’s nearby allies.

• Professor Katia identified a stone Mark as a symbol of the Scarlet Secret Society and recognized the banned book "Ocean Mysteries" as a sign of its leaders.
• Shade read letters from the safe and concluded that the alley was a cult gathering place where nearby people had disappeared.
• Professor Katia and Shade prepared to escape through a window as servants approached, and Professor Katia shot the servant who forced open the door.
• Shade split the reinforced window with Moonlight, and Leisha shattered the cracked pane before jumping outside.
• Leisha, Mr. Scott, Professor Katia, and Shade escaped through the window, then followed Leisha through the rain toward her people.

Shade and Princess Leisha fought the Scarlet Secret Society’s fish-like residents and Ring Arcanists on the Old Street, then escaped after Shade alerted Peace Church and killed Mr. Jude. They fled east in the carriage with the injured Professor Katia, Scott, and coachman, while the Church’s forces arrived behind them.

• Shade and Leisha attacked the fish-like creatures as Professor Katia and Scott fled, and they realized the cult was transforming people and using rumors of a cure to lure Ring Arcanists.
• Mr. Jude revealed that the Scarlet Secret Society had controlled the street for centuries, then confronted Shade and Leisha with hidden Ring Arcanists.
• Shade used Silver Moon high above the street to alert Peace Church and blind many cultists, then pursued Mr. Jude while Leisha escaped east.
• Shade overcame Mr. Jude’s defenses and killed him, then fled onto the rooftops as Church Ring Arcanists arrived.
• Shade found Leisha’s carriage, where the coachman and scholars had been injured by the flash, and they drove away through the rain.

After returning to Sophia Manor, Shade waited through a series of preparations while Leisha got dressed, then joined her for lunch. The two reunited at the dining table, where Leisha planned to host a grand feast for him that evening.

• Shade refused the Princess's maids' offer to help him bathe and washed up alone.
• Lya Hels kept Shade occupied with grooming and clothes while Leisha finished dressing, and explained that the manor's staff knew who he was.
• Shade learned that Leisha's trusted people were aware of her friends and that the King knew about them.
• Shade entered the dining hall and saw Leisha dressed in a Princess gown beneath a portrait of Mier Cavendish, the Red Lion.
• Leisha welcomed Shade to lunch and told him that the grand feast she had planned would be served that evening.

Shade and Leisha learned that the Scarlet Secret Society had spent centuries preparing a Sea Burial ritual to drown Coldwater Port and make it a home for its Fishmen. The Church’s investigation uncovered the ritual’s purpose, while Shade remained beside Leisha as they awaited the Red Ocean and the ritual’s final stage.

• Shade told Leisha that the curse could make her walk into the sea when the Red Ocean appeared, and they planned to keep her safe until the ritual ended.
• The Church searched Coldwater Port after capturing Fishmen and taking Kezhem Lane and Jude Manor, uncovering evidence of the Scarlet Secret Society’s long presence in the city.
• A royal contact’s report confirmed that thirteen Ring Arcanists had encountered the pirate ship and that the Sea Burial ritual was not a God Summoning ritual.
• Leisha explained that the ritual would sacrifice people tainted by divine power, awaken power left in the deep sea, and summon tides to drown Coldwater Port.
• Leisha identified the Scarlet Secret Society as the only cult involved, explaining that its Fishmen sought a permanent habitat and were bound to Coldwater Port by an ancient contract.

Leisha told Shade that the Church and the Three Great Arcane Academies were mobilizing to stop the Sea Burial ritual in Coldwater Port, whose final stage was expected next Wednesday. She asked him to stay by her side then, and the two ended the evening in the estate garden discussing their plans and memories.

• Leisha explained that the Political Economy Colleges handled nonhuman races and that scholars, Church officials, and secret orders were arriving in Coldwater Port.
• Shade learned that the Fishbone Pirate Ship had abducted all 123 people aboard a steam cargo ship while leaving its pets unharmed.
• Leisha said the Sea Burial ritual’s third stage was expected next Wednesday and asked Shade to be with her as the Church tried to stop it on land.
• Shade asked Leisha to help locate the other nine Ring Arcanists from their ship, especially Mr. Darkness, and told her he still needed fifteen credits.
• Leisha offered to lend Shade money for relics, then took him through the estate garden and recalled her childhood before asking him not to tell stories until the incident was over.

Shade enjoyed dinner with Leisha, returned home to discover Mia's interest in the room where a mass suicide had occurred, and prepared for Iluna's return to Tobesk. On August 1, Shade and Luvia waited at the station, where Iluna's train arrived early.

• Leisha hosted Shade for dinner, burned a letter about Delarion's planned trade agreement with Kasonlik, and listened as he reflected on his life.
• Shade returned home to find Dorothy watching Mia, and Dorothy told him the Cat had been sniffing around Room Two on the 2nd Floor.
• Dorothy asked when Shade would visit Leisha again, and Shade said he planned to go on Monday and still needed fifteen credits.
• Shade left early on Thursday to meet Iluna, who was returning to Tobesk from the Church of the Sun's headquarters.
• Luvia joined Shade at Tobesk Station, and they went into a restaurant to discuss news from Coldwater Port while they waited for Iluna.
• A crowd of travelers poured out of the station at seven twenty, and Shade and Luvia realized Iluna's train had arrived early.

Iluna returned from her Church leave and reunited with Shade and Luvia, promising to share what she had learned the next day. Priest Augustus then arrived at Shade’s home in shock, revealing that the potion Shade had won was a genuine, unexpired Fishman's Elixir of Immortality.

• Iluna met Luvia and Shade after returning, gave them travel souvenirs, and arranged to meet at Shade’s home the next morning.
• Shade returned home and found Priest Augustus waiting outside, urgently asking where Shade had obtained the potion he had brought for appraisal.
• Shade said he had won the potion in a Rhodes Cards game and explained that his opponent had said it was related to the Elixir of Immortality.
• Priest Augustus identified the potion as the Fishman's Elixir of Immortality, a master-level brew once obtainable only by powerful Witches from aberrant merfolk.
• Priest Augustus revealed that the potion had not expired, and Shade asked whether it could help recover the lost techniques for making it.

Shade and Priest Augustus investigated the strange circumstances surrounding painter Myerson Freeman’s death after learning that he had seen invisible people in his house. The priest showed Shade a crude wooden carving Freeman had made, leaving the source of the painter’s experiences unexplained.

• Shade learned that the Elixir of Immortality could restore youth for only a week and could be worth at least 2,300 Gold Pounds.
• Shade and Priest Augustus left Mia at home and set out to investigate Myerson Freeman’s death.
• Priest Augustus explained that Freeman had claimed there were invisible people in his house before he died after falling down the stairs.
• Priest Augustus told Shade that Freeman had developed an interest in wood carving shortly before his death and showed him one of Freeman’s badly carved wooden figures.

Shade and Priest Augustus searched the Freeman house for the cause of Mister Freeman’s death but found no supernatural traces. Mister Freeman’s recent paintings suggested that strange Post Office crates from Kasonlik might have played a role, so they went to question Mrs. Freeman.

• Shade and Priest Augustus entered the empty Freeman house and found bloodstains along the stairs leading from the attic, where Mister Freeman had fallen.
• Priest Augustus sensed that Mister Freeman had felt unusual terror before his death, and he raised the possibility that Mrs. Freeman had caused the accident, though he had no evidence.
• Shade inspected Mister Freeman’s paintings and found a blurry figure in one depiction of the house, as well as a painting of Post Office crates marked as shipped from Kasonlik.
• Shade and Priest Augustus searched the house and garden but found no spirits, relics, or other unusual traces.
• After lunch, Shade and Priest Augustus took a carriage to the apartment where Mrs. Freeman and her children were staying, intending to ask about the crates.

Shade Hamilton and Priest Augustus investigated the paintings linked to Mister Freeman’s death and discovered that one had gone missing. Mrs. Freeman described the missing painting as depicting several strange objects, leaving Shade and the Priest to wonder who had taken it and what it might mean.

• Priest Augustus introduced Shade Hamilton to Mrs. Freeman, who explained that the attic paintings were her husband’s discarded drafts and described his fatal accident.
• Mrs. Freeman said Mister Freeman had recently received a batch of old paintings from a friend, prompting Shade and Priest Augustus to suspect they were connected to his death.
• Mrs. Freeman showed them the paintings stored in a wooden crate, and Priest Augustus found an empty slot in the portfolio.
• Shade and Priest Augustus called for the children while Mrs. Freeman tried to identify the missing painting.
• Mrs. Freeman recalled that it depicted a Black Apple, a two-headed Plaster Statue, a wooden model house, a golden Pendant, and an Antique Vase with a strange pattern.

Shade and Priest Augustus discovered that the missing oil painting was a relic that linked its puppets to people who touched it, allowing a bandaged attacker in the picture to wound them. They escaped the bedroom and then the house, but Shade returned inside with George to keep the puppets from going upstairs, leaving Mrs. Freeman and Liya outside with Priest Augustus.

• Shade and Priest Augustus found George asleep and frightened after a dream about a bandaged figure, but he remembered no details.
• George’s sister recalled that he had found a painting while searching for toys, and the group discovered the rolled-up oil painting under his bed.
• The painting showed puppets resembling Shade and George in a model of the apartment, where a bandaged puppet attacked them and injured Shade through the image.
• Shade and the others fled the room and reached the street, while the painted puppets followed them through the model house.
• Shade realized that only people who touched the painting barehanded appeared as puppets, then went back inside as George followed with his mother and Priest Augustus stayed outside with Liya.

Shade and Priest Augustus investigated the Relic Oil Painting’s rules and found that attacks only hastened the Bandage Puppet’s pursuit. They brought Mister Freeman’s carved puppet into the painting, where his soul joined the others, and Shade created a puppet gun to help them fight back.

• Shade confirmed that the painting’s puppets mirrored people in the house and that puppet injuries eventually killed their real counterparts.
• Shade failed to damage the painting and found that his attacks made the Bandage Puppet move faster.
• Shade placed Mister Freeman’s wooden carving on the painting, and it melted into the scene as a puppet containing Mister Freeman’s soul.
• George recognized his father in the painting, and Mrs. Freeman embraced him as he cried.
• Shade used a handkerchief and his revolver to produce a wooden puppet shaped like a toy pistol, which he called a puppet gun.