Chapter Summaries

Dominic suffered a violent episode in the Church, and Feld and the Priest restrained him and mistook his behavior for possession. After Dominic lost consciousness, Feld learned that a caravan had taken the road north while carrying something that looked like a Relic.

• Dominic vomited and gasped for breath, then clutched the Priest and asked where they had gone.
• Feld restrained Dominic with belts and removed his sword after Dominic headbutted him.
• The Priest recited an exorcism while Feld pinned Dominic down until he fell unconscious.
• Feld blamed Dominic's episode on an Evil Spirit and asked the Priest about the ritual vessels.
• The Priest explained that the vessels belonged to a caravan that had traveled north with something valuable, apparently disguised as a Relic.
• Feld and the Priest decided to find Dominic a room.

Dominic woke in a church and followed a mysterious river of information that showed him the road north. Feld discovered Dominic had escaped on a warhorse and set out to bring him back.

• Dominic woke bound in an unfinished church and freed himself.
• Dominic sensed that the church and its surroundings revealed streams of information from the past and elsewhere.
• A voice guided Dominic toward the road north, and he followed the current to the stables.
• Feld woke to the sound of hooves and found Dominic and one of the warhorses missing.
• Feld learned from the hoofprints that Dominic had ridden north and asked the Priest to help him prepare to bring Dominic back.

Father Green warned Kraft about the religious duties attached to his position and shared findings about altered diocesan records and unusual heraldic similarities. Kraft burned the letter, unimpressed by the research, and turned his attention to the souvenirs Kup had brought back.

• Father Green urged Kraft to maintain religious appearances and heed Brother Raymond’s advice.
• Father Green reported that records about the Priyell Domain and Westminster diocese were fragmented, altered, and missing information about the monastery’s vanished residents.
• Father Green suggested investigating the former monastery residents and described heraldic similarities that could point to a once-powerful family in the region.
• Kraft dismissed Green’s findings, burned the letter, and wondered what souvenirs Kup had brought back.

Feld followed Dominic’s trail to a remote village and asked its lord for help bringing his friend back from the mountains. The old man agreed, sending Benny and Lucian with Feld to pursue Dominic.

• Feld realized he could not catch up with Dominic and continued following the hoofprints through the night.
• Feld reached a secluded village and knocked on the fortified residence overlooking it.
• The old man and his family hosted Feld at breakfast, where Feld noticed their ancestral crest.
• Feld explained that Dominic had gone mad and ridden into the mountains, and asked for local help finding him.
• The old man ordered Benny and Lucian to leave with Feld immediately.

Feld rode with Benedict and Lucian through the mountains to intercept his missing companion, while Benedict warned him not to investigate the region’s strange history. At the ruins of a village destroyed by a catastrophic downpour, Feld realized that a Church party had passed through before the disaster.

• Feld asked where Benedict was taking them, and Lucian explained that they were using a shortcut to cut off the missing man.
• Benedict warned Feld to leave once they found his companion and not to investigate, while Lucian said helping him also mattered to the village’s survival.
• Benedict told Feld that the locals had long feared a mountain presence linked to rare downpours and had once brought back people who ran mad into the mountains.
• Benedict described how an unprecedented downpour about twenty years earlier turned half the mountain into a mudslide and destroyed the village.
• As Benedict began to explain what had happened before the downpour, Feld realized that a Church party had passed through the village.

Feld and Lucian pushed through thickening mountain fog toward a destination Lucian expected them to reach before nightfall. Elsewhere, Dominic followed a mysterious voice to the ruins of a once-great family and recognized an impossible detail in its coat of arms.

• Benny wondered why the Church had taken so long to send anyone, while Feld concealed how little the Church had done.
• Feld noted that the fog was thickening, and Lucian said they had to keep moving toward their destination.
• Dominic woke injured and disoriented in a barren mountainside, then followed what he believed was a divine revelation uphill.
• Dominic reached the ruins of a wealthy family estate and found a carved coat of arms depicting a strange Dragon and a sword.
• Dominic realized the coat of arms showed a familiar image that should not have appeared in the mountains.

Dominic climbed toward the mountaintop while strange whispers guided him and his thoughts became controlled by a living understanding. When Feld and two others trapped him in a rope net, Dominic called out Lucian’s name, and the boy approaching switched sides.

• Dominic climbed through the fog toward the bare mountaintop as disembodied whispers warned him to avoid eye contact.
• Dominic realized that an unknown understanding had seized control of his consciousness and continued toward his destination.
• A hemp rope snared Dominic’s ankle, but he slipped out of his boot and evaded the first attacker.
• Feld and a middle-aged man trapped Dominic in a rope net as another figure ran toward them.
• Dominic called out Lucian’s name, and the approaching boy met his gaze and drew his short knife against the attackers.

Feld and Benny subdued Dominic and Lucian as a violent storm swept over them. With the men bound but still afflicted by madness, Feld offered to take Benny to a famous doctor who treated disorders of the mind.

• Benny warned Feld about Lucian's knife and tightened the net around Dominic as the gale intensified.
• Feld tied himself to the rope, but the wind knocked him and Dominic to the ground.
• Lucian tried to cut Dominic free, and Benny disarmed and restrained his son without drawing his sword.
• Feld made a vulgar gesture toward the Vortex, but nothing happened in response.
• Benny said the afflicted men would not recover on their own, and Feld offered to take him to a famous doctor.

Kraft examined unusual human bones before being called to treat Dominic and a teenage boy with altered mental states. Dominic showed signs of dangerously increased intracranial pressure, and Kraft asked the men accompanying them to explain what had happened.

• Kraft studied the thin, translucent bones and noted their unusual honeycomb structure.
• Kup told Kraft that patients had arrived, and Kraft hurried to the reception room.
• Kraft examined Dominic and a teenage boy, finding both confused but not immediately near death.
• Kraft recognized Dominic’s projectile vomiting, severe headaches, slow pulse, and abnormal breathing as signs of increased intracranial pressure.
• Kraft ruled out an obvious head injury, considered possible causes, and asked the men to recount what had happened.

Kraft uncovered that Dominic’s madness and skeletal changes stemmed from a rapidly growing pituitary tumor that had blocked cerebrospinal fluid circulation. He realized the tumor required an advanced operation that he had no equipment or expertise to perform.

• Kraft heard Feld and Benny explain that Dominic had gone mad after reading something and traveled to a mountain, where Benny’s family tried to restrain him.
• Kraft persuaded Benny to reveal local folk tales that helped explain what had happened to Dominic.
• Benny warned Kraft against investigating the madness too deeply, but Kraft suspected Dominic had encountered an intangible Anomaly.
• Kraft examined Dominic’s legs and found severe osteoporosis, fragile bones, and signs of abnormal bone remodeling.
• Kraft detected a rapidly enlarged pituitary tumor that had obstructed cerebrospinal fluid circulation.
• Kraft recognized that removing the tumor required a highly specialized surgical team and equipment he did not have.

Kraft considered the risks of operating on Brother Dominic’s pituitary tumor and devised a way to shorten the surgery using an ability that could make a precise cut without his hands. He decided to withdraw the transfer request and try treating Brother Dominic before the child.

• Benny pressed Kraft for hope about Brother Dominic’s condition, and Kraft initially judged the tumor inoperable.
• Kraft reasoned that open surgery might remove the tumor but would require him to maintain Spiritual Senses for too long.
• Kraft realized that a precise, non-manual cut could reduce the operation time enough to make surgery possible.
• Kraft told Benny to give him time to prepare and said he would try treating Brother Dominic first, then the child.

Jerome traveled to the White Tower Monastery to attend a scholarly gathering in place of his Professor. There, the Professor’s student revealed that Jerome had been invited to trace several lost coats of arms.

• Jerome accepted his Professor’s invitation and joined a scholar convoy bound for the White Tower Monastery.
• On the mountain road, Jerome studied the Monastery’s unsettling reliefs and discussed their biblical imagery with a Medical School representative.
• A young woman greeted the guests in place of the absent Professor and explained that he was unwell.
• The woman recognized Jerome as a Cathedral of Our Lady librarian recommended by Chief Inquisitor Green and led him to his seat.
• She told Jerome that his research could help trace a few lost coats of arms, and he agreed to do everything he could.

Kraft and Kup prepared for Dominic’s dangerous emergency operation, rehearsing the procedure and discussing Kraft’s use of unnatural power to cut through the skull. The chapter ended with Kraft alone, practicing an invisible cut as Kup left.

• Kup practiced suturing a sheep’s head while Kraft repeatedly tested his precision with an axe and wooden blocks.
• Kup questioned the risk of using unnatural power, and Kraft explained that the emergency cutting method was temporary despite the danger of attracting attention from the other side.
• Kup recited the operating plan, including anesthesia, lighting, observation, timing, and the steps he would take if Kraft collapsed or made a fatal mistake.
• Kraft approved the plan but showed signs of strain, while Kup disposed of the sheep’s head and quietly left the room.
• Kraft raised his hand and practiced bringing an invisible blade down against imaginary skin.

Kraft performed delicate surgery to remove the tumor from the sleeping patient’s pituitary gland, using his ability to control a Crack and separate the tumor safely. The operation succeeded, but Kraft collapsed from exhaustion as it ended.

• Kraft opened the patient’s skull and exposed the frontal lobe while Kup assisted.
• Kraft lifted the frontal lobe, stopped a small vein from bleeding with a silver clip, and continued toward the tumor.
• Kraft controlled the Spiritual Entity’s pain and formed a Crack that separated the tumor from the pituitary gland.
• Kraft removed the tumor, and the patient continued breathing steadily as Kraft and Kup closed the wound.
• Kraft severed his Spiritual Senses, then collapsed as the ceiling tilted into view.

After waking from the successful surgery on Dominic, Kraft discussed the risks and possible treatment options for Benny’s son, Lucian, whose tumor was still in its early stages. He proposed an untested, less invasive method and left Benny to consider its uncertain risks.

• Kraft woke after surgery and learned that Dominic had regained enough vision to recognize Feld, with no immediate fatal complications reported.
• Kraft celebrated the operation’s success with his students and the monks, then stopped them from framing it as a fusion of medicine and theology.
• Kraft told Benny that removing Lucian’s tumor by opening the skull would be extremely risky, but that Lucian’s early-stage condition allowed more time.
• Benny asked whether Lucian could receive a less invasive procedure, and Kraft explained that it might block the tumor’s blood supply but had never been tested and could cause dangerous clots elsewhere.

Raymond finished telling Yvonne the story of Spring Mountain Church, while Kraft examined Dominic and discovered that his drawing of the Vortex had stirred a presence beyond the material world. The chapter left Kraft suspecting that something was using Dominic to watch or influence the Present World, like the being in a northern legend about Fishing Holes.

• Raymond showed Yvonne an illustration of Bishop Auber and explained why people visited Spring Mountain for its healing spring water.
• Raymond told Yvonne that Green had chosen the Inquisition over further study in the Holy City, then answered her question about why the Lord gave people different talents.
• Raymond ended morning prayers and learned from Yvonne that Mr. Kraft was making rounds after recovering from his illness.
• Kraft examined Dominic, whose memories were fragmented, and asked him to draw what he remembered from the settlement church.
• Dominic drew a spiraling Vortex, and Kraft sensed a presence around him before Feld stopped the drawing.
• Kraft connected the presence to a northern legend of a vast being that watched the world through Fishing Holes and dragged people beneath the ice.

Kraft weighed the risks of Dominic’s condition and urged Benny to continue Lucian’s dangerous treatment despite the boy’s apparent improvement. He left Benny agreeing to proceed, while Kraft embraced his own authority and responsibility.

• Kraft warned Dominic’s attendants to monitor him closely because the tumor and something lurking in his consciousness still threatened his mental state.
• Benny asked whether Lucian’s improved behavior meant they could abandon the original treatment plan.
• Kraft explained the treatment’s risks and recommended proceeding, saying that without treatment Lucian would certainly die.
• Kraft cited his extensive medical experience and urged Benny not to leave the decision to luck.
• Benny took Kraft’s hand, and the two agreed to continue treatment.

Kraft began treating Lucian’s pituitary tumor by damaging a tiny artery with his supernatural power so a clot would block its blood supply. He stopped after cutting off about thirty percent of the tumor’s blood supply and left Lucian’s family to await the results.

• Kraft spent several days rehearsing the vascular procedure on five sheep and prepared Lucian with a head brace, anesthesia, and a diet intended to promote clotting.
• After morning prayers, Kraft began the procedure in Lucian’s hospital room while Benny and the family waited nearby.
• Kraft used his power to scrape the lining of a tiny artery feeding the tumor, causing a clot to form and block the vessel.
• Kraft confirmed that the clot had cut off about thirty percent of the tumor’s blood supply, then stopped and left the room to recover.

Jerome attended to genealogical records at the White Tower Monastery and noticed that noble crests across the surrounding mountains shared an unusual number of features. He suspected the region had once been ruled by a powerful family, though the historical records he knew gave no sign of it.

• Jerome woke after the banquet and reviewed the schedule for the monastery’s academic events.
• Jerome explored the library and found its extensive collection of local gazetteers and historical records.
• Jerome went upstairs to sort genealogical records gathered from local nobles.
• Jerome noticed that many mountain-region crests shared gold and red colors, scale-and-claw motifs, and weapons.
• Jerome reasoned that a powerful family might once have ruled the mountains, then recoiled at the implications of the discovery.

Kraft returned to the monastery office exhausted, and Raymond outlined the many administrative problems awaiting them. Kraft promoted Raymond to supervisor and assigned Kup and Feld as Chief Residents to help manage the monastery, leaving himself free to investigate the previous occupant’s death.

• Kraft rushed into the office after spending his time between the operating room, laboratory, and wards.
• Raymond briefed Kraft on looming grain shortages, religious services, land disputes, and requests from nearby churches.
• Kraft cited Saint Yeg as an example and made Raymond Knight Order commander and monastery supervisor.
• Kraft proposed appointing two Chief Residents to learn the monastery’s medical, logistical, and Church duties.
• Kraft assigned Kup to learn from Raymond and Feld to handle Church business, then said he would investigate what had killed the previous occupant.