Chapter Summaries

Iluna briefed Shade and the Witches on the negotiations, The Tyranny Club, and The Truth Society before they divided their preparations for the coming battle. As Iluna left, she told Shade that Church fragments about the Space Chosen One repeatedly mentioned a butterfly.

• Iluna explained that the Peace Church had urged both Kings to suspend negotiations, while The Church suspected The Tyranny Club was driven by three forces seeking war.
• Iluna said she would soon return to the island with a Thirteenth Ring member, while Shade planned to disrupt Laplace Howard's corpse-revival ability and investigate The Truth Society.
• Iluna revealed that Miss Pawo had become The Truth Society's President after research she led made a decisive breakthrough.
• Iluna suggested the Primal Rift might reach its peak without absorbing every member of the Edwards Family, and Miss Galina and the Witches praised her reasoning.
• Shade and Iluna agreed that Luvia would arrive Monday, and Iluna told him that Church fragments about the Space Chosen One repeatedly mentioned a butterfly.

Iluna asked Shade about the Old Gods, time and space, and a dangerous storytelling relic, then realized the opening of her game matched reality and kissed him in excitement. Shade sought advice on a birthday gift for her, while the Witches planned defenses for Green Lake Inn and Doctor reported surviving a spatial trap and a descending relic.

• Iluna asked Shade about the butterfly symbols, the World Tree, and ways to contact the Guardians of Time and Space, then described a story relic whose adventures turned dangerous after they began.
• Shade suggested that Iluna's story scenes might begin as reality did, and Iluna realized the matching openings proved her theory; she kissed him and left, embarrassed.
• Shade asked Helena Green what to give Iluna for her birthday, and she suggested a meaningful gift such as a Golden Apple.
• The Witches drafted a plan to reinforce Green Lake Inn and discussed the dangers of creating a stable space gate between Glass City and Green Lake City.
• Shade accepted Margaret's invitation to attend a Golden Dawn Opera Troupe performance with Audrey, then spent the day in Green Lake City.
• Doctor told Shade he had escaped a looping alley by reshaping space with the Labyrinth and narrowly avoided a relic descending over it.

Shade visited Margaret in Mikella Blast Furnace City as tensions between Delarion and Kasonlik escalated, and they spent the evening discussing her apprenticeship and the negotiations. Margaret decided to withdraw from the negotiations and focus on helping her teachers, then became intimate with Shade in their private opera box.

• Shade saw that the camps on both sides of the Crossroads passage had expanded and learned from Captain Rades that Delarion soldiers had been ordered to increase vigilance and carry firearms.
• Shade met Margaret at the Glass Bottle Theater, where she told him Sylvia had gone to investigate a Space Folding phenomenon and Audrey would arrive late.
• Margaret described her struggles as a Witch Apprentice and her research into making dolls with memory threads, while Shade comforted her.
• Margaret told Shade she planned to withdraw from the Green Lake Negotiations and concentrate on helping Benanis and Lathers instead.
• Margaret kissed Shade and asked whether he and Sylvia had been intimate before, then invited him to try it with her.

Shade and Margaret were interrupted by news of a shooting and an assassination threat at the Opera House. After Shade defeated the attackers in an ambush, three Great Witches arrived in the alley.

• Margaret and Shade shared a private moment in the Opera House box until royal attendants reported that gunmen had entered the building.
• Margaret left the Opera House with her maids while Shade disguised himself as a silver cat and hid under an illusion.
• The carriage carrying Margaret turned into an alley, where a coachman and dozens of gunmen ambushed it.
• Shade emerged unharmed, caught a bullet, and destroyed the twelve attackers with his chain and Pink Crystal.
• Shade asked Margaret how they would explain the attack, and Miss Sylvia, Miss Benanis, and Megan appeared through a vortex.

Shade and Miss Sylvia traced an attack on Princess Margaret Anjou to a Tyranny Club hideout through a temporary spatial door. The Church captured the surviving attackers, while Sylvia took a prisoner for the Witch Council and the city remained engulfed in violence.

• Miss Benanis staged an alley scene to make Margaret appear to be a victim, then sent Shade and Sylvia to investigate while Audrey went elsewhere.
• Shade and Sylvia used their combined spatial perception to find a temporary spatial door in a clock shop and followed it to a secret manor.
• Shade and Sylvia fought the Tyranny Club members at the manor, incapacitating several arcanists and capturing a sixth-ring woman before Church agents arrived.
• Shade told the Church that the Tyranny Club had targeted Margaret, Duke Simier, and Prince Samuel, and suspected an Edwardz had created the spatial door.
• Sylvia took the captured woman through a golden-black vortex with Shade, while black smoke rose over the city.

Shade read reports on Princess Margaret’s assassination and the worsening Green Lake negotiations before reuniting with Luvia, who had arrived to serve as a Diviner for the Seer Association. In the inn’s basement, Luvia’s Thaumaturgy helped Audrey manifest two extra arms, and a phantom of long-haired Luvia briefly appeared beside her.

• Shade read newspaper reports blaming Delin Orr Restorationists and illegal cultists for Princess Margaret’s assassination, while suspecting that citizens would implicate Military Intelligence Section Six.
• Luvia arrived at the Green Lake Inn and told Shade that Diviners had been assigned to a church camp so they could join operations as needed.
• Shade introduced Luvia to Doctor Schneider and then took her to the basement to meet Megan Edwardz and Audrey Edwards.
• Luvia clasped Audrey’s hand, and Audrey’s shadow writhed as two new arms grew from her back, allowing her to manifest more of her sister’s body.
• Luvia explained that she had sensed her Thaumaturgy, Fated Trajectory, would work on the sisters, and a long-haired phantom of Luvia briefly overlapped with her before vanishing.

Luvia helped Audrey complete her Spirit Runes, opening the path to the Twelfth Ring, then joined Shade and Iluna to use relic coins for divination about the Edwards Family’s Fusion. The divination confirmed Laplace Klein Howard was essential and that no more than four family members could be absent.

• Audrey received a butterfly pendant from Luvia and gained the Red Butterflies Spirit Rune, allowing her to pursue the Twelfth Ring.
• Luvia reassured Shade that she would handle matters at home while he dealt with other responsibilities.
• Iluna brought three Mechanical Blessing coins and explained their dangerous effects, including the chance of machinery exploding and coin throwers becoming Mechanical Life.
• Luvia used two Fanatic's Soul Coins to divine the Edwards Family’s Fusion and learned that Laplace Klein Howard had to be included.
• Luvia also learned that at most four of the Edwards Family’s twenty-one members could be absent from the Fusion.

Luvia divined the locations of the remaining keys and revealed that the Edwards Apotheosis Art was a larger ritual involving the Chosen Ones, the Blood-colored Gate, and Laplace Klein Howard’s plan. The group resolved to gather all thirteen keys and confront Howard before the ritual began, but Luvia’s final divination warned that at least five threats stronger than the Thirteenth Ring stood beside him.

• Luvia divined that three of the five remaining keys had formed and were held by The Tyranny Club, the Dragon Devouring Order, and The Truth Society, while clues to the other two lay with the Boatman’s soul and a mayor’s descendant in Glass City.
• Luvia learned that the Space Chosen One Ritual was only part of the Edwards Apotheosis Art, which also involved the Edwards Family’s Fusion, the thirteen keys, and Howard’s pursuit of another goal.
• Luvia explained that gathering all thirteen keys could let the group reach Another Island and confront Laplace Klein Howard before his ritual began, while the ritual would otherwise draw all Edwardzes to the Blood-colored Gate.
• Shade, Iluna, and Luvia rested and chatted before Luvia performed a final divination about the dangers they would face.
• Luvia suffered pain and began bleeding after seeing that at least five beings stronger than the Thirteenth Ring stood beside Laplace Klein Howard.

Shade learned that Laplace Klein Howard possessed several powerful threats, including the Poems Card, while he and his allies prepared for the Battle of Green Lake. When Leisha failed to arrive for their date, Shade discovered that she had gone missing from Yodel Palace and hurried to seek help.

• Luvia described five forces beyond the Thirteenth Ring connected to Laplace Klein Howard, including the Door in a Bottle, Soul Story Book, a suspected Envy Edwards, and the Poems Card.
• Shade identified the one-third skull as a threat he would remove from Laplace Klein Howard before the battle, and the group discussed sharing their findings with The Church.
• Iluna mentioned a dream about Angelina Cavendish and the Goddess in the Lake's Lake of Cherub, but Shade said he would keep an eye on Angelina and focus on the crisis at Green Lake.
• Shade visited Margaret in Glass City, informed the Witches of the new intelligence, then returned home to await Leisha's carriage for their Opera House date.
• When Leisha did not arrive at seven, Shade went to Yodel Palace and found unusual guard movements and a search for clues in her bedroom, where her maid was being questioned about Leisha's disappearance.
• Shade left the palace and hurried toward 221 Quill Street in the University District.

Shade discovered that Dorothy had vanished along with Leisha and sought help from Grace and Helen to locate the red butterfly pendants. Their search pointed toward Green Lake Inn, where Dorothy arrived with Doctor Schneider, leaving Shade reunited with her.

• Shade found Dorothy's apartment empty, fabricated an explanation for her absence to the landlady, and took Mia to Green Lake Inn.
• Shade summoned Grace and Helen with the Butterfly Summoning Flute and asked them to locate the red butterfly pendants.
• Shade and the twins used Enhanced Space Perception to detect one pendant approaching Green Lake Inn and another on a boat, where Luvia concealed its power.
• Shade went downstairs with Mia, Grace, and Helen, and Doctor Schneider arrived with Dorothy.
• Shade embraced Dorothy as she entered the inn, while Doctor Schneider and the twins watched.

Shade and Doctor Schneider traveled to Green Lake Island to find Leisha after Dorothy appeared in Green Lake City, where unstable space caused ghostly reflections to fill the sky. They reached the island together and entered the mist-shrouded town, leaving Leisha's whereabouts unresolved.

• Dorothy explained that she had appeared outside Green Lake City and that her connection with Leisha led her to believe Leisha was trapped in a foggy, abandoned town; Grace and Helen located the other Pendant on the island.
• Helen identified the growing ghostly apparitions as reflections caused by unstable space connecting the city with death, and Shade arranged for Dorothy and the Red Butterfly Young Ladies to protect the inn.
• Shade retrieved his weapons and left with Doctor Schneider, who used a coffin empowered by demonic magic to carry them swiftly across Green Lake to the island.
• Shade and Doctor Schneider reached the island's northern dock and prepared to enter Green Lake Town through the forest while staying together in case spatial Confusion separated them.

Shade and the Doctor fought their way through Green Lake Town as spatial instability produced dangerous aberrations, while Leisha waited nearby. Laplace Klein Howard approached Leisha to discuss the world’s last hope, but she fled from him and faced another monster as he warned her to be careful.

• Shade and the Doctor followed the Red Butterfly Pendant into town and destroyed a Space Aberration with their combined attacks.
• Shade collected the monster’s Ashes for later analysis as he and the Doctor continued toward Leisha.
• Leisha sensed Shade and the Doctor’s approach and prepared to defend herself in a dark building.
• Laplace Klein Howard introduced himself to Leisha, said he wanted to speak peacefully with Shade, and urged her to become a Chosen One of Space.
• Leisha refused to trust Laplace and leapt from the window, then saw a three-headed, six-armed monster emerge from the fog while Laplace warned her he could help.

Leisha fought a Space Aberration until Shade and the Doctor arrived to help defeat it. Shade then met Laplace Klein Howard, who revealed why he had avoided Shade and explained that the growing spatial instability was a natural sign of the world's approaching end.

• Leisha used the Sleeping Princess, Match Girl, and her shadow knight to fight the Space Aberration, but the creature destroyed the knight and attacked her again.
• Shade and the Doctor arrived, and Leisha pinned the aberration with pink crystal spikes while they destroyed it with flames and a greatsword.
• Shade asked Leisha and the Doctor to leave, then went upstairs to meet Laplace Klein Howard, who revealed that he was only an illusion.
• Laplace explained that spatial instability would spread across the world unless the Chosen One of Space used an Ancient God's power to suppress it, and said he had been restoring an ancient ritual to delay the Green Lake disaster.
• Laplace revealed that he had suspected Shade was Shade Hamilton, had studied the Myriad Aspects of Impermanence Cards, and had avoided meeting him because he feared the man chosen by six cards.

Shade met Laplace Klein Howard, who warned that the apocalypse was near and proposed working together to prepare for it. Howard also revealed his suspicion that an erased span of spacetime lay between the Fifth and Sixth Epochs, then began recounting the lengths of past epochs.

• Laplace Klein Howard challenged Shade to Rhodes Cards, lost, and warned him that the world was nearing its end.
• Howard said people had prepared for the apocalypse long before either of them was born and described Leisha Cavendish as the world's final choice.
• Howard shared his suspicion that an annihilated span of spacetime separated the Fifth Epoch from the Sixth, and said an earlier attempt to avert the end had failed.
• Howard proposed cooperation through his Edwards Apotheosis Art, but Shade rejected Howard's plan to become the Chosen One of Space and fuse with his descendants.
• Shade said he would pursue his own path to stop the Tragedies, while Howard urged him to question who had first guided him toward the Chosen Ones.
• Howard listed the recorded durations of the Sixth through Third Epochs and paused before discussing the First Epoch.

Shade escaped Green Lake Island with the wreckage of the Boatman’s ship, rejoining Leisha and the others as the spatial disturbance intensified. In Green Lake City, the Old Priest Latt Augustus arrived beneath a sky thick with fog and gathering shadows.

• The diviner told Shade that the prosperous Beginning Epoch might have been the world’s true normal age, with later epochs only its fading afterglow.
• Shade left the island, found a shipwreck guarded by Water Ghosts, and brought its remains away in his summoned wooden boat.
• Shade’s boat cleared a path through the White Fog as it traveled, and Megan’s cruise ship appeared to bring him and the wreckage aboard.
• Leisha embraced Shade, and he warned the group that the spatial disturbance was intensifying and the ritual for the Space Chosen One had to happen soon.
• Latt Augustus left the Green Lake City train station and looked up at the starry sky as souls and shadows gathered around him.

Angelina learned that Shade had stayed overnight at Rose Manor and eagerly anticipated seeing him, only to find her sister Leisha with him at breakfast. Leisha agreed to remain at the manor to help Miss Galina, while Angelina was asked to keep watch over her, and Angelina’s desire for power grew as she sensed her other self becoming clearer.

• Angelina heard that Shade had arrived at Rose Manor the previous night and looked forward to seeing him at breakfast.
• Angelina entered the dining room expecting Shade, but found Leisha had arrived with him, leaving her visibly disappointed.
• Shade explained that Leisha had been displaced from Tobesk and that the Church would be informed; Miss Galina planned to present her presence as a secret diplomatic mission.
• Miss Galina asked Leisha to stay and help with negotiations, and told Angelina to watch her and report if she disappeared.
• Angelina recognized that she could not help Shade in her current state and felt her desire for power grow as her other self became clearer.

Shade reunited with the other members of his group at Green Lake Inn, where each had arrived for a different reason and Priest Augustus revealed that he was seeking a material to advance to the fourth ring. After Shade brought Dorothy’s belongings from Tobesk and introduced her to Audrey Edwards, Luvia privately raised concerns about the possible Chosen Ones and asked Shade about the Unknown Level Relic, Fate Base.

• Shade found Luvia, Priest Augustus, Dorothy, and Doctor Schneider gathered at Green Lake Inn, where Augustus explained that he was preparing to advance to the fourth ring.
• Shade suggested they handle their own affairs in Green Lake and promised to address the risk of Saint Byron’s Academy investigating their absence.
• Dorothy decided to stay in Green Lake City and asked Shade to fetch her luggage and manuscripts from Tobesk.
• Shade returned with Dorothy’s belongings and introduced Audrey Edwards, whom Dorothy had wanted to meet.
• Luvia told Shade she needed to see Dorothy and Leisha together to assess whether they were candidates for the vacant positions of Chosen Ones.
• Luvia told Shade she had come to discuss the Unknown Level Relic, Fate Base.

Shade told Luvia that the Seer Association had found surviving believers of the Golden Master and learned that the Fate Base may be linked to them. He shared the intelligence with Miss Danist at Green Lake and asked for her help, leaving her to consider its value to the Academy.

• Luvia told Shade that the Association had found Golden Investment Club members who inherited the Golden Master's divine arts and had uncovered an incomplete manuscript about the Philosopher's Stone.
• Luvia advised Shade to tell Miss Danist about the Fate Base so she could negotiate with the Association and arrange a meeting with the believers.
• Miss Danist arrived in Pukhov Village with Academy professors and staff to inspect Green Lake during the rain.
• Shade met Miss Danist at an abandoned dock and told her the Fate Base was a Destiny Relic last held by believers of the Golden Master.
• Miss Danist said the intelligence could earn Shade full marks for his Practical Credit and access to a Keeper of Secrets Level Relic, while Shade asked her for a favor.

Shade and Miss Danist discussed the Green Lake investigation and the coming conflict, while reports of monsters and cult activity suggested the calm would not last. On Wednesday morning, Shade read the news with the Doctor and Priest before Dorothy joined him at the inn, where she hinted at something strange.

• Shade asked Miss Danist to arrange a meeting with Old God believers and discussed Laplace Klein Howard, Green Lake, and the investigation into the Sun, Moon, and Stars Ritual foundation array.
• Shade learned that a spatial-rift monster had appeared near Green Lake and that the Corpse Ghoul lich brothers were hunting the town mayor's descendants.
• Shade arrived at the Green Lake inn on Wednesday morning, where the Doctor planned to help him make a coin and the Priest prepared to visit Mr. Nicholas Green.
• Shade discussed the strained negotiations between the two countries with the Doctor and Priest, noting their limited progress on border and potato tariffs.
• Dorothy joined Shade for breakfast and said she had noticed something strange.

Shade, Megan, and Sylvia used the dangerous Red and Green relic to recreate the conditions that might summon the drowned boatman Old Renault. The plan succeeded, and the boatman’s ghost appeared and picked up his family’s silver anchor pendant.

• Shade visited Megan and Audrey’s repaired boat, where Megan explained that they would try to summon its former owner, Old Renault.
• Megan described Old Renault’s history, and Sylvia showed Shade the silver anchor pendant inherited by his descendants.
• Shade rowed the boat into Green Lake with Megan and Sylvia, who used an illusion and the Red and Green relic to recreate the conditions around the wreck.
• Sylvia explained how swapping the relic’s red and green hats confused space and could cause it to lose control, so Shade prepared to stabilize the area.
• Audrey swapped the puppets’ hats, and a ghostly green phantom of Old Renault appeared at the bow and picked up the silver pendant.