Chapter Summaries

Shade learned that the Apothecary Miss at Green Lake Inn was Audrey Edwards, the Great Witch of Knowledge and Wisdom, while Galina advised him to keep her secret for now. Leisha then took Shade on a date around Tobesk as an ordinary young woman, ending their evening at the Three Cats Inn.

• Shade touched the Apothecary Miss’s black potion, and Soren Green saw it turn white when he picked up the test tube.
• Galina identified the Apothecary Miss as Audrey Edwards and told Shade to pretend he knew nothing until she could expose her herself.
• Galina said Audrey had agreed to make Cat in a Bottle after Galina raised the price, and warned Shade that the Edwards Family might be connected to the Chosen One of Space.
• Leisha dressed as an ordinary young woman and asked Shade to spend the day walking around Tobesk with her, without servants or the trappings of a princess.
• Shade and Leisha strolled through the city and Regent Park, then ate at the Three Cats Inn, where Leisha teased Shade and asked whether he found the young women there pretty.

Shade and Leisha discussed her and Dorothy’s supernatural closeness and agreed they would remain distinct individuals. Their date continued with a visit to a folk theater in northern Tobesk, where the performance began with a play Shade recognized as “Clock Tower Lovers.”

• Shade told Leisha that he feared she and Dorothy were growing alike and asked whether her diaries described their desire to become one person.
• Leisha said she no longer wanted to merge with Dorothy, and she teased Shade about their three-person relationship.
• Shade and Leisha stayed at the Three Cats Hotel to hear the bard finish his song before heading to a folk theater Leisha had chosen.
• Leisha explained that Dorothy knew the theater and supported its artists, while Shade noticed the patrons and the donation box.
• The folk theater’s performance began, and Shade recognized the play as “Clock Tower Lovers.”

Shade and Leisha shared a date and spent the night together, after which Leisha and Dorothy discovered they could communicate across space. Shade worried that their souls were merging without their consent and decided to seek Luvia’s help.

• Shade and Leisha watched the Jasmine Opera Troupe perform, and an actress gave Shade the script Dorothy had requested as teaching material.
• Leisha and Shade returned to his home, where Leisha passionately spent the night with him.
• The next morning, Leisha and Dorothy discovered they could hear and speak to each other across space without swapping souls.
• Leisha told Shade about their new connection and promised that she and Dorothy would cooperate with his efforts to prevent them from becoming one person.
• After Leisha left with Angelina, Shade learned from Another Me that the souls’ fusion had progressed during the night and resolved to consult Luvia.

Shade sought answers about Dorothy and Leisha’s soul connection, learning how it could worsen and how to suppress it, but the Goddess in the Lake refused to explain its origin. She gave Shade a powerful white feather before he left.

• Shade asked Luvia to divine the source of Dorothy’s soul peculiarity, but the divination found no peculiarity in her soul.
• Luvia divined that Dorothy and Leisha needed unwavering resolve not to merge, and that either becoming the Chosen One of Space would make them transform into “Two-in-One.”
• Luvia explained that the Chosen One’s power had stimulated Dorothy’s transformation and that the effect would end once the Chosen One of Space was decided.
• Shade asked the Goddess in the Lake about Dorothy and Leisha’s connection, but she said he had to find the answer himself and reminded him to help them recognize their differences.
• The Goddess in the Lake gave Shade a powerful white feather, which he recognized as an angel’s feather.

After receiving a sacred feather from the Goddess in the Lake, Shade went looking for Dorothy and encountered growing public hostility toward Kasonlik amid the Green Lake Region negotiations. He found Dorothy at the Moli Troupe, where members were arguing over whether to stop performing Kasonlik works.

• The Goddess in the Lake gave Shade a sacred feather that could separate fused souls three times and wished him well in his coming trials.
• Shade visited Dorothy’s landlady, who warned him about the rumors surrounding him and Dorothy, and he promised not to hurt her.
• Shade and the landlady received flyers calling for a boycott of Kasonlik goods and condemnation of Kasonlik culture over the Pantanar Area negotiations.
• Shade went to the theater to find Dorothy, and Little Mia slipped inside before Dorothy emerged carrying her.
• Dorothy took Shade to meet her friends at the Moli Troupe, where Marian argued against stopping Kasonlik performances and another member urged a temporary halt.

Shade gave Dorothy an Angel Feather that could separate entwined souls, leaving her and Leisha to entrust him with deciding whether to use it. Later, Miss Galina brought Shade a Cat in a Bottle potion, and his test transformed him into a cat that petrified itself before he changed back into a naked man on her lap.

• Shade told Dorothy that the Angel Feather could separate two entwined souls, but she asked him to decide whether it should be used on her and Leisha.
• Dorothy promised that she and Leisha would remain by Shade's side, and Shade resolved to save them and obtain more divinity if necessary.
• Miss Galina visited Shade with a Cat in a Bottle potion and urged him to test it before taking it on his next adventure.
• Shade drank a mouthful, transformed into a silver-white cat, and used white wings to petrify himself before Galina or Mia could touch him.
• Shade dispelled the petrification and returned to human form on Galina's lap, while the maids screamed at his clothes lying on the floor.

After spending the night with Miss Galina, Shade learned she would be occupied with the Green Lake Negotiations and then set out to meet the Apothecary Miss. They headed south in separate carriages to obtain a newborn’s memory for the Time Key.

• Miss Galina stayed with Shade after dinner, and they spent the night together before she asked whether he had succubus blood.
• Miss Galina told Shade she would soon leave for the Green Lake Region and would visit less often while preparing for the negotiations, but insisted he keep visiting her.
• Tifa secretly advised Shade to visit Galina Manor over the weekend and bring flowers or a distinctive gift from the Green Lake Region.
• Shade met the Apothecary Miss at the Green Lake Inn, where she explained that they needed to travel to Mikella Blast Furnace City for a newborn’s memory.
• The Apothecary Miss arranged two carriages through Paradise Island Pharmaceuticals, and she and Shade set off south separately.

Shade accompanied the Apothecary Miss to Green Lake Island to search for an Edwards family grave, collecting an old notebook and buying a coin relic along the way. They landed at the island’s southern dock and headed toward the lighthouse, where the Apothecary Miss planned to find the grave of Sloth Edwards’s wife.

• Shade and the Apothecary Miss crossed the border into Mikella Blast Furnace City and passed a protest against the negotiations.
• The Apothecary Miss retrieved an old notebook from an Edwards family suitcase at a black-market bookstore, and Shade bought two coins of the Poet Level relic Lute's Lament.
• Shade told the Apothecary Miss that he was investigating where someone had obtained an item they should not have taken.
• Shade and the Apothecary Miss boarded a steamship with two of her nine-ring followers, then landed at the Edwards Family’s private dock on Green Lake Island’s southern side.
• The Apothecary Miss explained that Edwards family members were buried in hidden places across the island, and she and Shade followed a path toward the lighthouse to seek Sloth Edwards’s wife’s grave.

Shade and the Apothecary Miss exhumed her ancestor's grave to recover a tooth and encountered the ancestor's soul. The soul offered to answer one question about Klein Edwards, leaving the Apothecary Miss to decide what to ask.

• Shade dug up the grave of the Apothecary Miss's ancestor while she and her inner voices discussed his scent.
• Shade and the Apothecary Miss used magic to remove and open the metal coffin, and she retrieved a tooth from the corpse.
• Touching the corpse made Shade and the Apothecary Miss lose their sense of direction, and Shade used Guiding Death to contact the old woman's soul.
• The old woman's soul said only a descendant with at least high-ring strength could ask about her husband, Sloth Edwards, and welcomed the Apothecary Miss as one of her great-granddaughters.
• The soul offered the Apothecary Miss one question about Klein Edwards, and she looked to Shade for advice.

Shade and the Apothecary Miss learned that the Edwardz Family’s first ancestor, Klein Edwards, had been a Thirteenth Ring Warlock, then continued their search for the Blacksmith’s soul. They reached Green Lake Town Cemetery and waited for the fog to make them lose their direction.

• The old woman revealed that Klein Edwards had reached the Thirteenth Ring before her soul departed.
• The Apothecary Miss decided to investigate her ancestor’s identity, while Shade offered to help after their immediate business was done.
• The Apothecary Miss suspected Shade was the Chosen One of Space, but Shade denied it and suggested the Chosen One might belong to the Edwardz Family.
• Shade and the Apothecary Miss buried the remains, left flowers at the grave, and returned to their ship with the tooth they had recovered.
• They sailed around the island to its northern dock, then walked through the woods to Green Lake Town Cemetery.
• Shade and the Apothecary Miss sat by the Blacksmith’s tombstone and waited for the loss of direction to begin.

Shade and the Apothecary Miss discussed relics, history, and the Edwards Family prophecy while waiting in the fog for a spirit to appear. She revealed that the prophecy was known to every Edwards and that she feared her strength would not be enough to face the family’s hidden legacy, while Shade offered to help investigate.

• Shade showed the Apothecary Miss his staff, and she identified it as a dead sapling and a relic at least Sage Level, possibly Angel Level.
• Shade and the Apothecary Miss spent the afternoon discussing potion-making, regional legends, the Fifth Epoch, and other subjects, but the Blacksmith’s soul did not appear.
• Shade asked about the Edwards prophecy, and the Apothecary Miss said every family member heard it in dreams and believed it called them back to their island mansion.
• The Apothecary Miss admitted she wanted to grow strong enough to protect herself and worried that Eleventh Ring was her limit, so Shade promised to help when her family gathered.
• Shade showed her the Sun, Moon, and Stars symbol and explained that her grandfather, Alphons Edwards, had sent a letter bearing it to a folklorist a century earlier.
• The Apothecary Miss agreed to search her father’s relics and ask relatives about the symbol, but warned Shade that the mystery involved power far beyond his Six Ring rank.

Shade and the Apothecary Miss discussed the surviving members of the Edwardz family and prepared to open a grave on the island. After she revealed more of her family history, they began assembling the key, leaving a diary and her blood ready before the gravestone.

• Shade reassured the Apothecary Miss that his allies could help and asked how many Edwardzes were still alive.
• The Apothecary Miss named her living relatives and told Shade that her father had kept the family’s past from her.
• Shade promised to keep her private affairs secret, while the Apothecary Miss teased him about his companions.
• As the island’s fog thickened, the Apothecary Miss linked herself to Shade with a golden thread to improve their perception.
• The Apothecary Miss arranged the key’s materials before the gravestone, cut her wrist to collect blood, and Shade opened the red leather notebook, which contained a diary entry about Edward Edwards’s birth.

Shade and Apothecary Miss retrieved a bone key from an Edwardz grave, then visited a hidden graveyard containing the tomb of Lust Edwardz. Shade discovered that an empty stone box bore traces of the Angel Finger Bones, linking the grave robbers to the Watsont family.

• The Blacksmith’s soul accepted the six offerings and gave Apothecary Miss a bone key from a second Edwardz grave, which Shade dug up and reburied.
• Apothecary Miss withheld the secret of the doors the key might open but promised to invite Shade if she ever opened one.
• Apothecary Miss led Shade through a space-folding ritual to a concealed graveyard and showed him the Bone Repository containing Lust Edwardz’s coffin.
• Apothecary Miss explained that a Low-Ring Arcanist and ordinary accomplices had robbed the graveyard of its Burial Objects.
• Shade examined an empty stone box and identified faint Miracle Element traces from the Angel Finger Bones, connecting the grave robbers to the Watsont family.

Shade and Apothecary Miss connected the stolen Angel Finger Bones to the Edwards Family and discovered a Thirteenth Ring Warlock had arrived on the island. They hid as Er Harken’s group searched the Bone Repository, leaving Shade concealed among the statues and Apothecary Miss disguised as a cat.

• Shade realized the grave robbers had stolen burial objects from the Edwards Family and resolved to find out what they had encountered.
• Apothecary Miss agreed to help Shade search for the grave robbers and insisted on joining him if he found them.
• Shade and Apothecary Miss sensed six strangers approaching and recognized Er Harken, the Thirteenth Ring Warlock known as the Invisible Man.
• Apothecary Miss moved close enough to Shade to confirm that her witch curse had not triggered, then they decided to hide separately.
• Shade disguised himself as a stone angel statue while Apothecary Miss turned into a black-and-white cat and erased her tracks.
• Er Harken and his companions entered the Bone Repository, failed to find what they sought, and began searching the graveyard.

Shade intervened when the Apothecary Miss, transformed into a Cat, was cornered by Er Harken and the Mirror Society. He escaped the cemetery with her after breaking Er Harken’s Mystic Lock, but the pursuers concluded that both fugitives were descendants of the Edwards Family.

• Er Harken and two Eighth Ring Arcanists used a mirror spell to reveal the Apothecary Miss in Cat form and pursue her through the Great Fog.
• The Apothecary Miss fled and unleashed a chaotic barrage of four-colored runes, but Er Harken survived and continued after her.
• As the Apothecary Miss neared a loss of control, Shade caught her and struck Er Harken with a Shadow Ball that petrified his forearm.
• Er Harken began forming a Mystic Lock, but Shade shattered the mirror world and fled with the Apothecary Miss after splitting into three illusions.
• Er Harken struck Shade with a Dimension Slash, but Shade used the impact to escape the cemetery with the Cat.
• The two one-eyed brothers told Er Harken that both fugitives were descendants of the Edwards Family, and Er Harken ordered the search to continue.

Shade rescued Apothecary Miss from a Thirteenth Ring Warlock, survived a spatial wound, and carried her toward the dock while treating her mental injuries. They found the ship still waiting, but Apothecary Miss asked him to wait until her transformation ended before rejoining her Followers.

• Shade woke after the Thirteenth Ring Warlock's attack, and Apothecary Miss used her healing potion to treat his wound.
• Shade expelled the lingering spatial power with Space Stabilization Aura, and his wound quickly healed through his own recovery.
• Shade concealed himself and carried Apothecary Miss toward the dock, using Cindyia's Silver Moon Gift to treat her mental injuries.
• Apothecary Miss asked why Shade had saved her, and he said he had done it simply because he wanted to.
• Shade and Apothecary Miss found the ship still at the dock with its agreed lantern signal, but she asked him to wait until her transformation ended.
• Shade sat with Apothecary Miss on the beach and told her about his earlier encounter with a Water Ghost.

Shade learned that the witch was Megan Edwards and helped calm her unstable spirit with Pure Moonlight Water before she returned to human form. After Megan left, Shade turned his attention to the fog-contaminated island and began using Earth Power to heal it.

• Megan told Shade that the two Eighth Ring Arcanists were her nephews and revealed her name was Megan Edwards.
• Shade gave Megan Pure Moonlight Water, which soothed her Spiritual Power and caused her cat form to glow as the transformation spell wore off.
• Megan returned to human form and offered to show Shade her face, but he declined and asked her to write after dealing with the Orichalcum key.
• Megan departed by steam engine, leaving Shade alone on the fog-shrouded island.
• Shade recognized that the unknown fog had contaminated the island and cast Earth Power - Healing Aura.

Shade temporarily purified Green Lake Island’s dock and returned to Tobesk, where Luvia’s divination revealed that Klein Edwards was the vanished Seer Association diviner Laplace Klein Howard. They planned to investigate him and alert the Church, Council, and Academy, leaving the island’s secrets and the diviner’s connection to the Chosen One of Space unresolved.

• Shade used Earth Power - Healing Aura to restore the dock area temporarily and obtained a small Holy Grail marked “Mist.”
• Shade returned home by Space Movement, told Luvia about the events on Central Island, and described Apothecary Miss, the Invisible Man, and the two Edwards Descendants.
• Shade asked Luvia to divine Klein Edwards’s identity, and using two Special Coins, she discovered his true name was Laplace Klein Howard.
• Luvia explained that Laplace Klein Howard had been a Twelfth Ring Diviner who betrayed the Seer Association about 260 years earlier and had been expected to become its president.
• Shade asked Luvia to research Laplace through the Association and planned to inform Iluna, Galina, Audrey Edwards, the Council, and Miss Danist about the unrecorded Thirteenth Ring Diviner.

Shade learned that the God of Journey’s followers had records linking an oracle to a supreme Witch Emperor and the Winter Maiden’s believers, possibly connecting his current adventure to Ice Witch Chloe. Before returning to the past, he arranged for the Church to investigate the Edwards Family and set off through the Time Key with Mia.

• Iluna told Shade that the Traveler’s Association had preserved records of an oracle involving a supreme Witch Emperor in an ice city, possibly referring to Ice Witch Chloe during Shade’s 928 adventure.
• Luvia suggested the God of Journey might be connected to the Ancient God of Space and Shade’s enhanced Space Perception.
• Shade told Iluna and Luvia about the Edwards Family’s ancestor and his clash with the Thirteenth Ring Warlock, Invisible Man.
• Shade decided to ask Sister Devlin and the Guardians to report strange events at Green Lake to the Church so it would investigate the Edwards Family and the Chosen One of Space.
• Shade took Mia as a toy, inserted the Time Key into the study door, and entered the White Fog to return to the past.

Shade returned to the Lost Forest camp and reunited with Areira Andreana, Clara, Zaffir Yellen, and Dika Enriques before the travelers resumed the God of Journey’s Seven-Day Story. To help the Moonlight Traveler cross the river, Shade drank a transformation potion and became a cat.

• Shade ran through the Lost Forest’s deadly fog and reached the camp, where Areira Andreana, Clara, Zaffir Yellen, and Dika Enriques had been waiting.
• Shade recognized Areira’s Tarot Card, Myriad Aspects of Impermanence, but chose not to interfere with its fate.
• Shade gave Areira his notes on using Unicorn power and turned Little Mia back from a toy into a cat.
• The God of Journey resumed the story, and Dika recapped how the Boatman had refused to let the Moonlight Traveler board.
• Shade drank a brown potion and transformed into a cat so he could become like the other travelers.