Chapter Summaries

Kraft fled the enormous Crawling Creature controlled by Fungal Spirits and discovered that his spiritual touch could disrupt their control. After drawing the threat to the village outskirts, he stopped running and prepared to use his Inlays against it.

• Kraft escaped the ruined church and drew the creature through the village, dodging its crushing limbs and spore attacks.
• Kraft sensed the Fungal Spirits inhabiting the mycelium and realized they controlled separate segments of the creature.
• Kraft touched the spirits with his own spirit, driving some away and temporarily disrupting a limb's control.
• Kraft led the chase to the village outskirts, expecting Kup and Martin to have reached the church spire.
• Kraft turned to face the creature and prepared to use his Inlays.

Kraft deliberately destabilized the boundary between the Dim Realm and the Present World to destroy the Scale-Fungus, but the resulting distortion spread beyond his control. Kup awoke in the village and saw a familiar figure standing amid the lingering chaos, then rushed toward it with Martin.

• Kraft triggered the Stone Matter in his arm and accelerated the convergence of the two worlds as the Fungal Spirits closed in.
• Kraft pushed the crossing beyond his control, causing the surrounding space and the Scale-Fungus to distort and overlap across layers.
• Kup awoke on the Church's Clock Tower and searched the village, finding Kraft missing and a warped area at its edge.
• Kup saw a familiar figure standing amid distorted buildings, kicked open the Clock Tower exit, and raced toward it with Martin.

Yvonne entered Brimmer’s room, took his pendant, and killed him when his convulsions threatened to draw the Fungal Husks. Searching his belongings for a way to contact the extraordinary thing, she found a bottle of black liquid and drank it, leaving its effects unknown.

• Yvonne approached Brimmer, took the pendant from his neck, and discovered he was still conscious but unable to control his infected body.
• When Brimmer’s convulsions grew louder, Yvonne stabbed him in the neck and cut until his body went still.
• Yvonne searched Brimmer’s robe for a way to contact the extraordinary thing and found a concealed bottle of black liquid.
• Yvonne recognized the liquid as the substance she sought and drank it all.

Yvonne drank the potion and fell through layers of reality, losing most of her memories before choosing to accept the beings pursuing her. Meanwhile, Kraft identified how the fungal infestation had spread and confronted the infected Duke, whose final words were a fragment of scripture.

• Yvonne drank the liquid and fell through collapsing layers as mushrooms and strange sensations overwhelmed her consciousness.
• Yvonne remembered that she had sought power to escape slow suffocation, then accepted the White Light and gazes as they followed her upward.
• Kraft concluded that repeated use of Edward’s Spellcraft and contact with other Deep Layer creatures had caused the Crawling Creature’s loss of control and fungal outbreak.
• Kraft shot the infected Duke with crossbow bolts while explaining how his breathing worked, and Kup pinned him to his chair.
• The Duke stopped drawing a Circle after sensing Kraft’s mental organ and recited part of a scripture passage before collapsing as the mushrooms crumbled.

After returning from the mushroom village, Kraft learned that Yvonne had been injured during an attack inside the castle but found her alert and studying in bed. As he examined her for nerve damage and a possible respiratory infection, the Heretics' pendant suddenly shone red.

• Kraft and Martin returned to Westminster Castle with the party after burning the village and carrying back a piece of the mural as proof.
• Martin noticed that the castle sentries were unchanged, while Kraft worried that the pendant still glowed faintly despite finding no source with his Spiritual Senses.
• A guard summoned Kraft and the leading knight, reporting that Yvonne had been injured during an attack inside the castle and would need to remain in bed.
• Kraft found Yvonne alert, coughing lightly, and studying copied pages; he learned she had fallen, hurt her back, and gone unrescued until the next day.
• Kraft laid Yvonne flat to check for nerve damage, suspected a respiratory infection, and pulled out the pendant, which emitted red light.

Kraft questioned Yvonne about the day the Parasitic Husks appeared and realized Brimmer was likely connected to the incidents. He discovered a Fungal Spirit attached to Yvonne’s Spiritual Entity, but his attempt to remove it endangered her, forcing him to stop.

• Kraft used the pendant’s glow to confirm that something unusual was affecting Yvonne, then gently asked her to recount the day of the attack.
• Yvonne said Brimmer had visited to obtain Kraft’s manuscript, then described seeing beautiful, mushroom-like creatures near Brimmer’s lodgings after the torches went out.
• Kraft connected Brimmer to the vanished people at the banquet and suspected he had enabled the Fungal Spirits to enter the Present World.
• Kraft used his Spiritual Senses and found a Fungal Spirit entangled with Yvonne’s Spiritual Entity.
• Kraft tried to pull the Fungal Spirit away, but Yvonne’s condition worsened, so he abandoned the attempt.

Kraft discovered that a Fungal Spirit had fused with Yvonne’s Spiritual Entity, making it dangerous to remove without harming her. He cautiously tore away a small portion and left her to rest before going to meet the Duke, the other infected person.

• Kraft found that the Fungal Spirit had attached to Yvonne’s Spiritual Entity and that a forceful removal could damage her.
• Kraft warned Yvonne that she might be sick and asked her to report any symptoms; she described pain in her left shoulder and neck.
• Kraft carefully pulled at an unfused portion of the Fungal Spirit until it broke apart, causing Yvonne pain but less harm than his earlier attempt.
• Yvonne nearly revealed something she was hiding, but Kraft told her she could speak when ready and left her to rest.
• Kraft left with Kup to meet the Duke and explain the infection investigation.

Kraft reported that the Heretics had used fungi to infect and control people, and the Duke ordered their creations burned. After examining the Duke, Kraft discovered a fungal parasite in his lungs and considered how to draw it out.

• Martin told the Duke that the Heretics' lair had been destroyed and their leader killed, and showed him a fragment of their mural.
• Kraft explained that dense fungal growth could indicate the disease and that contaminated White-Belly Mushrooms might have infected the Duke.
• The Duke revealed that Brimmer had died in the mushrooms and bore a Circle Cult tattoo, then ordered the Heretics' remains and creations burned.
• Kraft examined the Duke's lungs and found a fungal lesion containing a Fungal Spirit that activated the mycelia and triggered coughing, fever, and convulsions.
• Kraft concluded that the Duke's physical parasite differed from the parasite affecting Yvonne's Spiritual Entity and considered making the lungs inhospitable to draw it out.

Kraft prepared equipment for a controlled pneumothorax intended to force the Fungal Spirit out of the Duke of Westminster’s lung cavity. He completed the first cautious air injection, which began compressing the cavity and stirred the fungal ball, then stopped to let the duke rest.

• Kraft inspected the craftsmen’s silver needle, leather tubing, and air bag, then ordered a reinforced tube for tracheal intubation.
• Kraft explained the treatment’s risks, and the Duke of Westminster consented to the procedure.
• Kraft sterilized the equipment, positioned the duke, and inserted the needle into the pleural cavity using his Spiritual Senses.
• Kraft slowly released air into the cavity and observed the lung compress as the fungal ball began to stir.
• Kraft stopped the first injection, withdrew the needle, dressed the puncture, and told the duke to rest.

Kraft monitored Yvonne after removing the Fungal Spirit and considered how to publish medical knowledge about the infection and the Deep Layer. A week later, the Duke’s treatment had advanced to its final, dangerous stage, though the Duke remained eager to proceed despite Kraft’s warnings.

• Kraft examined Yvonne, found her mostly recovering but noticed a subtle difference in her left arm, and decided to keep monitoring her.
• Kraft recorded the Duke’s and Yvonne’s cases and considered publishing an anonymous medical treatise with guidance on treating Deep Layer-related illnesses.
• A guard summoned Kraft to dinner early at the Duke’s request, interrupting his case notes.
• Over the following week, the Duke underwent a third gas insufflation treatment, and the Fungal Spirit moved as his right lung was compressed.
• Kraft warned the Duke that his improvement was temporary and explained that the final treatment carried serious risks, but the Duke asked him to begin it soon.

Kraft attempted to remove the Fungal Spirit from the Duke’s lung while keeping him breathing through a makeshift tracheal tube. The fungus blocked the tube, but Kraft pulled it free and destroyed the trapped parasite in the furnace.

• Kraft intubated the Duke with a leather tube and began inflating his lung while monitoring the Fungal Spirit with his Spiritual Senses.
• The Fungal Spirit crawled from the lung cavity into the bronchi, obstructing airways and causing the Duke to cough and convulse.
• Kraft ordered guards to restrain the Duke and had an attendant pump air into the tube during the seizure.
• The Fungal Spirit reached the trachea, then crawled backward into the tube and blocked the Duke’s artificial airway.
• Kraft pulled out the tube, threw it into the furnace, and used his Spiritual Senses to destroy the Fungal Spirit trapped inside.

After treating the Duke’s Anomaly, Kraft won approval for an organization to document rare diseases and gained access to reports from the Academic Gathering. Back with Yvonne, he discovered that her strength had increased as the Fungal Spirit attached to her began to revive.

• Kraft destroyed the Spiritual Entity inside the Duke and warned him to avoid mushrooms as he recovered.
• Kraft persuaded the Duke to authorize a Rivers University organization and a small armed force, with Viscount Fernand handling the announcement and funding arrangements.
• Kraft named the organization the Society of Tuberculosis and Rare Diseases of Westminster and planned to use it to access the attendees’ reports, including Lecturer Petrie’s report.
• Kraft stayed with the Duke until noon, then returned to his room and planned to examine Petrie’s sealed belongings at Rivers University.
• Kraft found that Yvonne’s wound and the attached Fungal Spirit were recovering in a precarious balance, then discovered her arm had grown unusually strong during an examination.

Kraft discovered that a fungal infection had spread through Yvonne’s body and attached itself to her Spiritual Entity, and he suppressed part of the Fungal Spirit to quiet the strange sound she heard. After leaving her to rest, he realized the symptoms he had been listing might describe someone else—possibly himself.

• Kraft found fungal filaments woven through Yvonne’s muscles and spreading in her airway, despite her lack of obvious symptoms.
• Yvonne described hearing a faint, nearby sound, and Kraft tore away part of the Fungal Spirit attached to her Spiritual Entity, silencing it.
• Kraft told Yvonne she was sick and scheduled her next treatment for three days later, while suspecting she was hiding something about the incident.
• Kraft asked Kup what Yvonne might be thinking, then stopped as he wondered who the infection symptoms he had been considering actually described.

Kraft reviewed Petrie’s surgical records with Martin and concluded that someone may have removed the evidence they sought. Before going onstage at a Rivers University gathering, Kraft learned that the dying man’s words about good news echoed a saint’s account of an Angel.

• Martin brought Kraft cold honey beer while Kraft examined Petrie’s papers at a gathering venue.
• Kraft told Martin the papers contained ordinary surgical records and suggested someone might have taken the material they were looking for.
• Kraft explained that Petrie’s unusually slow amputations involved carefully tying off even small arteries, and hinted that an anesthetic method would soon make such operations less horrifying.
• Martin told Kraft that the dying man’s words about good news came from a saint who had seen an Angel descend.
• Kraft remembered the dead man’s expression and the Crawling Creature’s limited Spiritual Senses, then stepped into the hall as the crowd roared.

Kraft demonstrated an operation under anesthesia before a packed audience while Yvonne experienced a terrifying, inexplicable connection to him and the procedure. After the patient awoke without feeling pain, Yvonne discovered she had crushed pieces of the hardwood windowsill in her grip.

• Yvonne watched Kraft enter the Great Hall and sensed an immense, transparent creature moving through the crowd around him.
• As Kraft's patient breathed in the anesthetic and the operation began, Yvonne heard an urging whisper and felt phantom pain.
• Kraft quickly removed the gangrene while Yvonne recalled drinking a mysterious liquid and insisted to herself that she did not regret it.
• Professor Ferman asked the patient whether he had felt pain, and the patient said the operation had not seemed to start.
• Kup joined the cheering crowd, and Yvonne found jagged fragments of the windowsill in her palm instead of biscuit crumbs.

Yvonne told Kraft that she had killed Professor Brimmer and asked to help him, but Kraft resisted bringing her into his dangerous work. The chapter ended with Yvonne demonstrating her supernatural strength and insisting that he let her try.

• Kraft welcomed Yvonne into his office and promised to keep their conversation private.
• Yvonne told Kraft that Professor Brimmer was dead, then revealed that she had killed him with the dagger from the Southern Hills.
• Kraft acknowledged that Brimmer deserved to die, returned the dagger, and warned Yvonne not to put herself in danger.
• Yvonne said she wanted to help Kraft just as Kup did, but Kraft told her she was not ready for his plans.
• Yvonne crushed the teacup with her strength and insisted that Kraft at least let her try.

Rivers University prepared a pointed letter announcing a delegation to teach painless surgery at Dunling University, where Kraft would serve as the central figure in the exchange. As Fernand sealed the letter and Kraft asked about Ether production, a crash and a burning curtain drew their attention upstairs.

• Rivers University’s letter apologized for Petrie’s death, praised his work, and announced that it would send a delegation to Dunling to teach painless surgery and discuss a tuberculosis treatment plan.
• Kraft read the letter and recognized its barbed insults toward Dunling University, but understood the university could not afford to reject the technical exchange.
• Fernand sealed the letter and said he had old friends at Dunling, while Kraft approved of the letter’s bluntness.
• Kraft asked whether anyone had found suitable oil for improving Ether production, and Fernand said they were testing it upstairs.
• A crash of breaking glass sounded, and Kraft and Fernand saw part of a curtain drifting down in flames.

Kraft and the others arrived in Dunling, where Professor Linden recalled that Calman Morrison had left academia for a church school. At the landing, Professor Samuel revealed that Morrison and several others had died in a laboratory fire, leaving him temporarily in charge of the Medical School.

• Kraft, Professor Linden, and Lecturer Maynard passed Dunling's old churches and discussed its history and the Church's armed clergy.
• Professor Linden complained about the Church's influence and recalled that Calman Morrison had left teaching for a church school.
• Fernand's party docked in Dunling and Professor Samuel welcomed them.
• Fernand asked where Morrison was, and Samuel said Morrison, Professor Calman, and several students had died in a laboratory fire months earlier.

Professor Samuel led the Rivers visitors through Dunling University after Professor Morrison died in a laboratory fire, while the Inquisition investigated the incident. Professor Linden and Kraft questioned how the blaze had grown so severe, but the chapter left them wary of probing the matter.

• Fernand saw Morrison’s portrait and accepted that his old rival had died in a laboratory fire, then offered his condolences to Samuel.
• Samuel led the Rivers visitors through the Medical School and criticized the Inquisition for investigating the fire and disrupting the university.
• The Inquisition’s priest pointed out the charred area near the laboratory dome’s open skylight and refused to explain the group’s purpose.
• Samuel brought the visitors to a meeting hall and told them a welcoming banquet and outside lodgings were being arranged.
• Linden told Kraft that the laboratory damage seemed excessive, and Kraft considered discreetly asking questions before Linden warned him against getting involved.

Professor Linden led Kraft and the others through Dunling University’s Medical School, where they found the route to the dome laboratory locked, then took them to the Cathedral of Our Lady. Kraft recognized local legends about the cathedral and its bell ringer, leaving the group puzzled by his laughter.

• Professor Samuel gave the visiting delegation little attention and said their activities should avoid controversial research, so Linden joked that he would take his students sightseeing.
• Linden left the banquet with his students, then led Kraft and the members of the Tuberculosis and Rare Diseases Society through the Academy to find the dome laboratory.
• Linden explained the local belief that Human Anatomy had been written in the dome and asked Kraft to preserve the earliest ether bottle set, but they could not enter the locked room.
• Linden took Kraft and the others to the Cathedral of Our Lady, Dunling’s tallest bell tower, and described its history and local hunchbacked bell-ringer story.
• Kraft recognized the bell-ringer legend and laughed without explaining why, surprising the others.