Chapter Summaries

Miss Olanord and Shade entered Gaddis Library’s deeper ruins to retrieve the Yegge Scroll, overcoming a Bone Dragon and a Soul-Forging Skeleton. Shade answered the skeleton’s question by opening a rift to death itself, and Miss Olanord revealed that the Gate of Death was used as a Witch Council execution instrument in her era.

• Miss Olanord took Shade into the Black Snow to find the Yegge Scroll while Bei Ji stayed behind with Miss Samuel and their luggage.
• Miss Olanord destroyed a Bone Dragon with her Moonbeam Greatsword and led Shade into a hidden passage in Gaddis Library.
• Miss Olanord identified the bronze guardian as a Soul-Forging Skeleton and told Shade to retrieve the Yegge Scroll it guarded.
• The Soul-Forging Skeleton asked Shade what death was, and Shade opened a rift to the concept of death itself.
• The skeleton collapsed, allowing Shade to claim the Yegge Scroll, while Miss Olanord explained that the Gate of Death was a Torture Instrument used by the Supreme Witch Council to execute condemned Witches.

Shade learned how the Gate of Death could be projected and uncovered ancient writing about the Ancient Gods’ planned return. He retrieved the Yegge Scroll but left without opening its forbidden knowledge.

• Miss Olanord explained that a Supreme Witch Council member could summon a projection of the Gate of Death at a boundary between life and death, and criticized the Council’s use of it.
• Shade touched the Yegge Scroll and learned that the Ancient Gods had prepared for their departure and promised their return.
• Shade and Miss Olanord returned to the entrance hall, where Miss Bei Ji Samuel had recovered and helped arrange the supplies.
• Miss Olanord inspected the scroll’s stone cover, and Miss Samuel explained that First Epoch books opened when their titles were spoken in the language they were written in.
• Shade asked how to say Yegge Scroll in the First Epoch language, but Miss Olanord warned him against seeking its forbidden knowledge, so he decided not to open it.

Shade and the Witches found the second Nameless Sacrifice Book, but its seal required five items containing Sun Power. After Shade gave Miss Olanord the chance to make the next wish, he presented the Yegge Scroll to the Gray-Robed Sage, who asked what wish they wanted fulfilled.

• Miss Olanord explained that the Nameless Sacrifice Book was sealed and required five items containing Sun Power to open.
• Shade and the Witches counted the Sun-powered flame and the Corpse of the Sun Worm, leaving three items to find; Shade promised to bring more on his next visit.
• Shade refused to use the next wish for himself and urged Miss Olanord to make it, and she accepted while promising to remember her debt to him.
• The Gray-Robed Sage appeared when Shade opened the shrine, and Shade presented him with the Yegge Scroll.
• The Gray-Robed Sage placed the scroll on a transparent bookshelf and asked what wish Shade wanted fulfilled.

Shade helped Miss Olanord seek the guardian god’s blessing for her library by offering him a story from his homeland. As he began telling the tale of a cursed Princess, Shade was carried away before he could finish, leaving Miss Samuel and Miss Olanord to wonder whose story they had witnessed.

• Miss Olanord asked the guardian god for a blessing to establish a library, and he offered her a chance to gain greater power in exchange for stories that should never have existed.
• Shade volunteered to provide the story, accepting that he would lose the chance to obtain knowledge about enhancing Time Perception until he could investigate forbidden secrets.
• Shade recognized a connection between the story he was about to tell and the Princess and Blonde Young Lady he had encountered before.
• With the god’s help, Shade told how a witch cursed a Princess to fall into eternal sleep after touching a spindle on her sixteenth birthday.
• White mist carried Shade away before he could finish the tale, and Miss Samuel and Miss Olanord reflected that they had been witnessing his story.

Shade learned that his actions in the past had brought Saint Byron's the Level 0 Relic Staff of the Old Sage, then arranged for Sun Power items to aid another story. He met Leisha at the opera and learned that her Words of Sublimation, “Sleeping Princess,” came from an ancient tale whose completion could grant Shade a new Spirit Rune.

• Shade asked Miss Galina about Saint Byron's connection to the Gray-Robed Sage, and she revealed that the academy possessed the Level 0 Relic Staff of the Old Sage.
• Shade arranged for Miss Galina to find two items containing Sun Power to accompany Iluna's Sunlight Gun brooch.
• Shade visited Leisha and Angelina at the Tobesk Grand Opera House, where Leisha told him that the Difference Engine documents had earned her father's praise and given her influence over the New Continent Pioneer Legion.
• Shade asked Leisha about her “Sleeping Princess” Words of Sublimation, and she explained that the tale originated in the Fifth Epoch and that her academy preserved its original manuscript.
• Shade sensed Enlightenment gathering around his Destiny Ring and anticipated gaining the Spirit Rune Sleeping Beauty after completing the story.

Shade discussed his missing Spirit Rune and plans with Leisha, then prepared to attend Grandma Cassandra’s ritual in Middlesburg. He left with the Gift Box, the Night Watchman, and Mia as the city’s planned sealing operation approached.

• Leisha warned Shade that using Sleeping Princess in place of Slumber could make later advancement difficult, and Shade decided to obtain Slumber before using the Time Key again.
• Leisha advised Shade to ask Saint Byron’s about substitute Spirit Runes and arranged a birthday gift for Dorothy’s mother, which Shade would mail with a letter.
• Angelina noticed that Shade looked more handsome, and Leisha confirmed that the Phoenix Flame had reshaped his body.
• Shade planned to attend Grandma Cassandra’s ritual on Monday, then help the Witches seal the mountainside in the Interstice on Wednesday before the Orthodox Church searched Miburg for the resurrected Nails.
• Shade took the Gift Box and the Night Watchman to Middlesburg, then put Mia inside the box for safety.

Shade traveled up Sikar Mountain for a ritual, but his companions repeatedly separated from him, leaving him to continue alone with Little Mia. At a mountain stream, he met a young woman in a black dress whose arrival stirred a memory, and he carried her to shore as the Whisper returned.

• Shade met Grandma Cassandra, Sister Devlin, and Rita Swift at the auction house before they set out for the ritual site.
• Sister Devlin, Grandma Cassandra, and Rita Swift each left the carriage on separate pretexts, leaving Shade to climb Sikar Mountain alone with Little Mia.
• Shade heard a cry for help and found a young woman in a black dress sitting in the cold stream.
• The young woman asked Shade to carry her to shore, and she introduced herself as a second-year history student at Middlesburg Mechanical College.
• Shade carried the woman on his back, and he felt the Whisper again.

Shade met a history student called the Black Skirt Girl in the mountains, and agreed to accompany her as she searched for an abandoned village. Red Butterflies led them to a black-mist-shrouded relic village, where the girl revealed it was her destination.

• Shade and the Black Skirt Girl introduced themselves and discussed why they had come to the mountains.
• The Black Skirt Girl asked Shade to protect her while she investigated an old mountain village, and he agreed to follow her.
• After crossing the stream, Shade learned that the Black Skirt Girl had a twin sister whom she hoped would return.
• A Red Butterfly appeared in the forest, and the Black Skirt Girl grabbed Shade's hand and chased it deeper into the woods.
• Swarming Red Butterflies shielded Shade and the Black Skirt Girl from the Whisper Element as they reached an abandoned village surrounded by black mist.
• The Black Skirt Girl said the village was her destination, while Shade warned that entering it resembled the start of a horror story.

Shade entered the cursed Desolate Village with the Black Skirt Girl, whose Red Butterflies protected them from its undead and black mist. They opened the Clock Tower door and learned that the Black and White Twins had once intervened in the village’s sacrifices; the Black Skirt Girl’s story and behavior suggested a troubling connection to them.

• The Black Skirt Girl led Shade into the Desolate Village, where Red Butterflies kept the cursed mist and lurking undead at bay.
• She explained that villagers had uncovered a crack beneath a gold mine and sacrificed two children every decade to slow the spreading black mist.
• At the Clock Tower, Shade failed to force open the locked door, but the Black Skirt Girl helped him use Door Key and the Red Butterflies to open it.
• The Black Skirt Girl revealed that the village’s destruction followed the arrival of the Red Butterfly Twins, who had intervened to save two nine-year-old twin girls from sacrifice.
• Shade asked whether the twins had lived well, and the Black Skirt Girl answered that life was an empty dream before watching him amid the butterflies.

Shade and the Black Skirt Girl watched a Truth Society team enter the village tower to retrieve a relic and trigger the village’s loss of control. They followed the Arcanists underground, where Professor Johnson began fighting the village’s powerful evil spirits.

• Shade and the Black Skirt Girl concealed themselves among the Red Butterflies as three Truth Society Arcanists approached, carrying an unconscious Middle-aged Woman.
• The Truth Society members discussed their mission to make Gold Mine Village lose control and bring back the Resurrection Nail, then opened the tower door with a bloodstained key.
• Shade and the Black Skirt Girl followed the Arcanists down the tower’s elevator to the underground passage.
• The team encountered a mass of vicious evil spirits, and Shade recognized Professor Johnson’s High-Ring undead Thaumaturgy, Death Praise.
• Shade noticed that Professor Johnson possessed a black iron-colored Whisper Spirit Rune among his Core Ling Runes.

Shade and the Black Skirt Girl followed The Truth Society's Ring Arcanists to the source of the black mist deep beneath the mine. After Professor Johnson detonated two companions to escape, the girl explained that the mine was sealed and offered Shade the only way out: jumping into the abyss.

• Shade and the Black Skirt Girl followed The Truth Society's Ring Arcanists through the mine to the abyss where the black mist originated.
• Professor Johnson threw a skull lantern toward the hole, but the Red Butterflies carried it away and revealed Shade and the girl to the Arcanists.
• Shade attacked Professor Johnson with a crimson sword scar, damaging his defenses and cracking his Destiny Ring.
• Professor Johnson used the Demon Bomb Seal to detonate his two companions, then escaped while Shade and the girl survived behind the Red Butterflies.
• Shade bound the unconscious middle-aged woman with Great Sin Chains and carried her as the Black Skirt Girl explained the village's sealing and the woman's likely resurrection.
• The Black Skirt Girl offered her hand and invited Shade to jump into the abyss, which she said was both the source of the calamity and their only way out.

Shade accompanied Helen through Life and Death Limbo to the Summit Great Fissure, where she used a Spell Stone and her blood to bring back her sister Grace. The Old Witch explained the twins’ twenty-two-year reunion ritual and its terrible cycle, leaving Shade to understand the Red Butterflies as symbols of their enduring longing.

• Helen retrieved a Spell Stone made by two girls whose souls had remained together, then led Shade through a rift into Life and Death Limbo.
• Helen guided Shade to the Summit Great Fissure, where the Black Wind harmed them and she offered her blood-soaked Spell Stone.
• Helen summoned Grace from the fissure, and the sisters embraced as Shade stepped aside.
• Grandma Cassandra, Sister Devlin, and Rita Swift arrived, and Grandma Cassandra explained that the sisters reunited for one year every twenty-two years before one killed the other to restart the cycle.
• Shade understood that each Red Butterfly represented the twins’ repeated separation and reunion, and recognized the nursery rhyme as their story.

Shade reunited with Little Mia in the Interstice and discovered the cat had brought back a strange divine-material hook. After Sister Devlin used First Fire to burn a resurrected Nail in the Summit Great Fissure, the group returned to Sikar Mountain, leaving Shade to head home with Mia.

• Shade opened the box and found Little Mia unharmed, with a bronze hook tied to her tail as this week's gift.
• Shade recognized the hook's material as the same as God's Gift Box and realized it was a scrap left from its creation.
• Shade explained that the bound woman was one of the resurrected Nails, and Sister Devlin asked to use her to help suppress the Interstice.
• Sister Devlin invoked First Fire and threw the burning woman into the Summit Great Fissure, temporarily aiding the Ancient One.
• Sister Devlin told Shade that Grandma Cassandra had known he was the one her Teacher awaited and would never harm him.
• The group returned to Sikar Mountain in the Reality World, and Shade headed toward the Abandoned Tower with Mia.

After comforting Dorothy over Grace and Helen’s tragic story, Shade dreamed of a red butterfly and awoke to find a gift and letter from Leisha for Louisa. He returned to Middlesburg, where a strange fog had descended from Sikar Mountain, and learned that Grace and Helen were being contained beneath the auction house after their ritual.

• Shade told Dorothy about Grace and Helen and asked her and Leisha to stop wearing their Red Butterfly Pendants, promising Dorothy a better ending.
• Shade dreamed of following a red butterfly to a castle before Luvia and a giant, tiger-shaped Mia attacked him.
• Shade found Leisha’s gift and letter for Louisa, wrote to Louisa and invited friends to help seal the third-floor boundary, then left for Middlesburg.
• Shade discovered that dense fog had fallen from Sikar Mountain and heard from a newspaper boy that it had appeared during the night.
• Grandma Cassandra told Shade that Grace and Helen were contained in the auction house basement because their Whisper Elements were difficult to control, and allowed him ten minutes to visit them.

Shade learned that destroying the first Nail had triggered the Interstice’s Great Fog, while rival factions gathered in Middlesburg over the Chosen Ones. He then went to meet Grace and Helen in the auction house’s hidden containment room, leaving Mia with Miss Swift as he entered.

• Grandma Cassandra told Shade that the Interstice’s Great Fog had followed the destruction of the Nail representing Fear, and that three increasingly powerful Nails remained.
• Grandma Cassandra explained that the Death’s Chosen One had to be male and personally kill someone returned from death, while several factions investigated possible candidates and a Thirteenth Ring Warlock was coming to Middlesburg.
• Shade planned to revisit Joey Barton at the Raven Club and decide whether to report or recruit him.
• Shade followed Miss Swift to the hidden underground bedroom where Grace and Helen were being held, and reassured her that she was already an accomplished apprentice.
• Shade handed Mia to Miss Swift, unlocked the heavy door, and entered to meet Grace and Helen.

Shade reunited with Grace and Helen, who explained that they had willingly accepted the Twins God's blessing to escape their family curse and remain together through repeating cycles of reunion and separation. He understood their choice but resolved that, if he completed the Twelve Divinity Ascension Path, he would not let their story continue to end in the same cycle.

• Shade entered Grandma Cassandra's rune-covered room and found Grace and Helen in giant forms, surrounded by the Whisper Element and illusory Red Butterflies.
• Grace and Helen told Shade that each twenty-two-year cycle reset most of their memories, leaving their lives shaped by waiting, reunion, and Slumber.
• Grace and Helen explained that they had willingly accepted the Twins God's blessing, which freed them from their family curse and granted them immortality in exchange for helping Phoenix suppress Life and Death Limbo.
• Shade asked whether they would choose the same fate again, and the twins answered that they would because they feared separation more than death.
• Shade accepted that the twins' life suited them, but decided he would not let their story remain trapped in its cycle if he completed the Twelve Divinity Ascension Path.

Shade learned how the Red Butterfly Twins had tracked him to Tobesk and discovered that his arrival had been unexpected. They gave him three Red Butterfly marks to help find the remaining Resurrection Nails, and he left after arranging to visit again in a week.

• Helen explained that Miss Feliana had given the twins the clues Tobesk, Saint Derain Square, and Hamilton, which led them to Shade.
• Helen said she had investigated Shade’s past and found that he had fled Green Shade Town during the Great Famine, with nothing unusual in his origins.
• Shade asked what he had been like in spring, and Helen recalled that he had seemed dull but interesting.
• Grace and Helen sent three Red Butterflies to mark Shade’s shoulder and guide him toward the remaining Resurrection Nails.
• Shade agreed to return in a week, told the twins he was happy to see them again, and left the room with Miss Rita Swift and the Cat.

Shade visited Joey Barton alone to discuss death and learn about his reverse-growth illness, while investigating his connection to the Chosen Ones. Barton began recounting his childhood and explained that he had left Miburg for treatment, returning only three years ago at age forty.

• Shade collected the Ancient Witch's Golden Ring: Right One from Miss Aurora and traveled with Mia to meet Joey Barton.
• Shade found Barton in the Truth Society's club and learned that the crow in his room had mysteriously died after Shade's previous visit.
• Shade asked Barton about death, and Barton said that it was the fair end shared by all living beings.
• Shade revealed that he had investigated Barton's reverse-growth illness and asked about his life after leaving Miburg.
• Barton recalled that his family had sent him away for treatment, which failed to cure him, though his health gradually improved as he grew older.

Joey Barton recounted to Shade how the Scholars helped slow his reverse aging and how he spent three happy years with the woman he loved in Artek City. After her accidental death, he traveled with her ashes and eventually settled in Miburg, unable to accept her loss.

• Joey Barton told Shade that Scholars had treated his condition, slowing his reverse aging and introducing him to a new view of the world.
• Barton described meeting a woman in a red dress at Rhodes Cards Casino in Artek City in the summer of 1845 and falling in love with her.
• Barton recalled that he and the woman spent three happy years together, and that she accepted his reverse-life condition.
• Barton explained that the woman died after slipping in a puddle on a rainy day and breaking her neck.
• Barton said he carried her ashes across the Old Continent to fulfill their shared hopes, then returned to Miburg in autumn 1850 because Artek City was too painful to revisit.

Shade questioned Joey Barton about his dreams, his unusual talent, and The Truth Society’s search for a person chosen by Destiny, then urged him to cooperate with the Five Gods Church. Professor Magis interrupted their conversation and took Barton away, so Shade followed them into the fog to learn what was happening.

• Joey Barton described repeatedly dreaming of a dead woman beside white shadows on a dark expanse of water, and Shade recognized it as resembling the mudflat of True Death.
• Shade revealed that he was a Ring Arcanist and asked whether Barton belonged to The Truth Society; Barton said he was at most an unofficial member or test subject.
• Shade explained that The Truth Society sought someone with a special talent for death, chosen by Destiny, and suggested Barton’s own abilities made him a possible target.
• Shade told Barton that an event capable of stirring the Material World was approaching and offered cooperation, but a knock interrupted him.
• Professor Magis arrived, asked Barton to leave with him, and had Shade escorted out through the front door.
• Shade decided to follow Barton and Magis through the fog, activating Blood Echo while carrying Mia.