Chapter Summaries

An unnamed medical student recalled choosing a school whose ivy-covered buildings inspired him to study with unexpected devotion. He discovered strange intermittent noises beneath his nighttime study room, but only learned more about the locked first-floor room during a later Regional Anatomy class.

• The student enrolled at a medical school near his home after his exam score qualified him for admission, and he fell in love with its ivy-covered campus.
• He threw himself into his courses and began studying late in an empty second-floor lecture hall after evening lectures.
• The student noticed intermittent scraping noises from a locked room beneath the lecture hall and imagined they came from laboratory animals.
• He asked a teacher about the room, but the teacher gave no clear answer and told him not to waste electricity studying there at night.
• During a later Regional Anatomy practical class, the student learned what kind of teacher used the room, though he preferred to believe the noises came from a faulty exhaust fan.

Seaman and the other sailors realized the enormous iceberg they had seen on the horizon was drawing closer, despite their attempts to dismiss it. By morning, thick freezing fog had enveloped the ship, and Captain Becker ordered the crew to watch for the approaching thing.

• Seaman and his companion hid in their cabin, then tried to reassure themselves that the iceberg they saw was not the same one they had spotted earlier.
• During the night, Seaman overheard sailors remark that the distant shape looked bigger, and he admitted to himself that it was the same iceberg growing closer.
• Seaman and the sleepless crew prayed for protection while the ship’s sails were adjusted.
• Seaman woke to dim light and heavy cold moisture, then climbed onto the deck and found the ship surrounded by dense ice fog.
• Captain Becker kept watch at the helm, ordered Seaman to take his post, and told the sailors to report anything they saw so he could turn the ship.
• A sailor told Seaman the strange iceberg had come closer overnight, while the still air and blinding fog left them unable to see it.

Kraft heard the captain tell of Becker’s ship fleeing a colossal, glacier-covered presence in the Ice Sea and asked to include the tale in a book. The captain revealed that his name was William, known as Bearded William, and hinted at his connection to the shipowner’s son who bought the trading rights.

• Becker ordered the crew to dump their cargo and wake the first mate so the ship could flee something moving through the fog.
• The crew threw ore, crates, and furs overboard as crashes of breaking ice drew closer.
• Seaman saw a towering shadow move through the fog, and violent waves nearly capsized the ship.
• The captain told Kraft that Becker and the surviving sailors returned to Wenden Port, where most lived unhappy lives afterward.
• Kraft asked permission to include the story in a book and asked where the captain had heard it.
• The captain asked Kraft to guess who had bought the trading rights, then introduced himself as William, Bearded William.

Captain William brought Kraft and Kup to Solace Port, where they saw its colorful nightlife before following sailors to the grand Solace Church. The chapter ended with Kraft realizing the port’s pleasure district and its religious devotion were linked as different forms of solace.

• William showed Kraft and Kup the distant Christen Mountain Lighthouse and announced that the Iceberg would stay in Solace Port for several days.
• After landing, William protected Kraft from a woman seeking customers and offered to guide him to a reputable establishment, but Kraft declined.
• William led Kraft and Kup away from the lively port district toward the city center as the streets grew quiet and the sound of a choir emerged.
• Kraft tensed at the approach to the Solace Church, then followed William inside its brightly illuminated square after learning the port was named for the church.
• Kraft apologized for mistaking Solace Port’s name for a reference to its nightlife, and noticed that sailors from the pleasure district had joined the churchgoing crowd.

Kraft toured the Solace Church with Captain William, studying its lavish glasswork and religious displays while trying to escape the choir’s unsettling singing. He learned the singers were castrati and heard that the church’s extraordinary clear glass came from Dunling, while William went to confess.

• Kraft entered the Solace Church with Captain William and examined its glass-mosaic ceiling, warm-colored decorations, statues, and congregation.
• Kraft tasted a communion wafer, then followed William up to the second floor, where William admitted he visited the Church before going to the port.
• Kraft stayed upstairs while William went to confess, then walked toward the church’s glass wings with Kup.
• Kraft met a castrato admiring the wings and realized the choir consisted of castrati rather than boys.
• The castrato said the glassmaking technique came from Dunling and involved an alchemical potion that removed impurities.

Kraft learned that the unique glass used in the Winged Ring came from a craftsman in Solace Port, and he set out to find him and recruit him to make scientific instruments. William identified Father Adrian as “Adrian the Drunkard.”

• Kraft learned that the glassmaking breakthrough in Dunling had depended on an alchemical reagent that ran out after the Winged Ring was completed.
• The eunuch singer told Kraft that the craftsman was a man who had dedicated the glass masterpiece to the Lord and was acquainted with Father Adrian.
• Kraft asked the eunuch singer to introduce him to the craftsman and Father Adrian, but the singer declined and left.
• Kraft told Kup he wanted the craftsman to make glass instruments and potentially join his colleagues in Wenden Port.
• William returned, and when Kraft asked about Father Adrian, William called him “Adrian the Drunkard.”

Kraft, William, and Kup visited Father Adrian, a priest notorious for drinking, and tasted his unusually strong distilled liquor. Kraft recognized that Adrian’s drinking might have caused a serious illness and questioned him about symptoms.

• William told Kraft that Father Adrian had been banned from hearing confessions after being found drunk in a confessional.
• William led Kraft and Kup to Adrian’s quarters, where Adrian welcomed them and offered his homemade liquor, Spirit of the Wine.
• Kup gulped down a glass and coughed, while Kraft sampled the liquor and recognized it as highly purified distilled alcohol.
• Kraft noticed Adrian favoring his left hand and keeping his right hand against his distended belly.
• Kraft asked Adrian whether he had pain beneath his right ribs, a poor appetite, or yellowed skin.

Kraft examined Father Adrian and identified severe damage from heavy drinking, including liver dysfunction and fluid buildup in his abdomen. After demonstrating the fluid with percussion, Kraft explained how the damaged liver had caused it and warned that Adrian's condition put him at risk of fatal bleeding.

• Kraft listed Father Adrian's symptoms and connected them to excessive drinking, alarming Adrian and William.
• Father Adrian mistook Kraft for a divine messenger before learning that he was a lecturer from the Medical School of Wenden Port Academy.
• Kraft warned that Adrian's swollen belly contained fluid and offered to examine him.
• Kraft found jaundice, swollen abdominal veins, and shifting fluid in Adrian's abdomen, then demonstrated the fluid by tapping his belly as Adrian changed position.
• Kraft explained that alcohol-damaged liver function had caused blood pressure to rise and fluid to collect in Adrian's abdomen, and warned of potentially fatal digestive bleeding.

Kraft diagnosed Father Adrian with severe alcohol-related illness and urged him to stop drinking gradually. While inspecting Adrian’s distilling equipment, Kraft improved its design, then learned that Wicham needed an alchemical acid to make the Church’s clear glass.

• Kraft found that Father Adrian had a hard, uneven liver and an enlarged spleen, and warned that his condition was dangerous.
• Adrian described his withdrawal symptoms, and Kraft explained that they were caused by alcohol dependence and advised him to cut down gradually.
• Kraft persuaded Adrian to show him his distilling equipment and suggested cooling the curved neck and heating the flask with hot water.
• Kraft and Adrian added a water bath and condenser, greatly improving the distillation setup.
• Adrian said Wicham could not make glass as clear as the Church’s without a certain acid, and Kraft asked about it.

Kraft discovered that Wicham’s rare, corrosive acid was likely concentrated sulfuric acid, which could help him produce ether for surgical anesthesia. When Wicham said the acid’s former maker’s assistant was incapacitated after a fall, Adrian suggested Kraft might try treating him.

• Wicham showed Kraft the last bottle of the unnamed acid and explained how its maker had vanished after the supply ran out.
• Kraft tested the liquid on iron, learned it had once been strong enough to scorch wood, and identified it as concentrated sulfuric acid.
• Kraft realized that sulfuric acid and alcohol could yield ether, a long-sought surgical anesthetic.
• Wicham said the inventor’s former worker had fallen ill and was being cared for by his daughter.
• Adrian remembered Kraft was a capable doctor and suggested he try treating the incapacitated man.

Kraft and Father Adrian visited Yvonne to examine her incapacitated father and seek information about his former employer, an alchemist. Yvonne told them her father had died three days earlier, leaving Kraft without a patient to treat or answers to his questions.

• Adrian described Yvonne's father's condition and warned Kraft that the Church might treat him harshly.
• Kraft and Adrian walked toward the family's home, discussing Yvonne's burden of caring for her father.
• Yvonne overheard Adrian talking about her, and he hurriedly introduced Kraft as a doctor.
• Kraft offered Yvonne a bag of apples and explained that he had come to treat her father.
• Yvonne told Kraft and Adrian that her father had died three days earlier and had not told her anything they wanted to know.

Kraft helped Yvonne arrange a coffin for her father and witnessed her final farewell. A Spiritual Senses scan revealed countless nodules and large lesions in the dead man’s lungs, suggesting his illness had an unexplained cause.

• Father Adrian offered condolences and asked Yvonne where her father would be buried, but she said something had to happen first.
• Kraft accompanied Yvonne and the priest into the sealed room where her father’s body had lain for three days.
• Kraft examined the corpse’s signs of severe respiratory illness and asked the priest to find a coffin.
• The priest returned with a coffin, and Yvonne said goodbye to her father before the lid was closed.
• Kraft secretly scanned the corpse with his Spiritual Senses and found countless nodules and large lesions throughout the lungs.

The author announced that the book went on sale on the 23rd and thanked readers and a fellow author. They recalled watching cloud reflections on a river at dusk, including one strange shape they could not match to any cloud, and said the experience inspired them.

• The author announced the book’s sale date and thanked readers for supporting it.
• The author recommended Ru Tongguan’s novel and thanked him for recommending their work.
• The author recalled walking by a river at dusk and watching the clouds’ reflections change with the light.
• The author saw an unusual rippling reflection that they could not match to anything in the darkening sky.
• The author said the unexplained reflection stayed with them and inspired them to recreate its subtle feeling.

Kraft and Adrian buried Yvonne’s father, and Kraft deduced that the man had likely died from silicosis caused by mineral dust inhaled in a mine. They left with a lead to investigate a recently opened mine that may have supplied the material for the Cathedral Glass Wings.

• Adrian, Kraft, and Yvonne buried her father and marked the grave with a wooden board.
• Kraft offered Yvonne a job and asked whether she often coughed, felt tired, or had fevers; she said she did not.
• Kraft told Adrian that Yvonne’s father’s lung damage was probably caused by inhaled mineral dust rather than an infectious disease.
• Kraft and Adrian suspected the father had worked in a mine that opened around the time the new glass appeared and later shut down.
• Adrian planned to ask sailors and other contacts in Solace Port about mines that fit those clues.

Kraft asked Yvonne and Kup what they wanted to do and offered to teach them. Kup chose weapons training, while Yvonne chose to study medicine after asking whether a doctor could have saved her father.

• Kraft asked Yvonne and Kup to help with paperwork, then realized they could not read and invited them to discuss their futures.
• Kraft offered to teach them common words and asked what work they wanted to pursue.
• Kup said he wanted to learn to use weapons, and Kraft agreed to train him with different weapons starting the next day.
• Yvonne asked whether Kraft could have cured her father if he had arrived sooner, and Kraft said he could not.
• Kraft explained that doctors centuries in the future might have a chance to treat her father’s illnesses, and Yvonne chose to study medicine.
• Kraft warned Yvonne that medicine would require hard work and told both of them to join the morning exercise before their mountain-road journey.

Kraft, William, and their companions planned to search the isolated southern mountains for a hidden mine, using grain-delivery routes and a local guide to find the settlements. As they prepared to set out, Kup surprised Kraft by reading a place name on the map aloud.

• The cartographer described the remote Tobide River region and warned that the suspected mine location was only speculation.
• William agreed to invest in the search, and the group decided to hire a local guide and inspect settlements that received grain.
• William warned Kraft and Yvonne that unusual methods might be used in the mountains and that he might not be able to protect them.
• Kraft asked Yvonne and Kup to read a place name on the map, and Kup stammered out, "Gravel... Town?"

Kraft, Kup, Yvonne, William, and the sailors reached Gravel Town after a long wagon journey and sought shelter and a guide at its shabby church. The locals’ wary response to the Church left Kraft wondering what had taken its place in the remote settlement.

• Kup endured the bumpy ride to Gravel Town and noticed Yvonne watching him from beneath her hood.
• Kraft reminded Yvonne to stay close as the group entered the small town, where the locals showed little warmth toward the sailors.
• The group went to the church, where William woke the sleepy Priest and asked to stay the night and find a guide.
• The Priest agreed to shelter them and said he would ask Peter to help find a guide.
• Kraft noticed the locals had focused on the sailors’ Winged Ring amulets and wondered why the Church had failed to win their support.

Kraft and his companions traveled with Peter through the Southern Hills to investigate abandoned mines and search for a mineral needed by the Church. Peter revealed that countless deep, tunnel-like mines dotted the region, but the group left without finding the ore or learning what lay at the caves’ ends.

• Peter warmly welcomed Kraft’s group as fellow believers, and Kraft gave the Priest coins before asking Peter to show them a recently abandoned mine.
• Peter pointed out an overgrown mine near Gravel Town and explained that he made a living trading grain and minerals.
• Peter said natural mines were common throughout the Southern Hills and complained that other locals ignored his faith and followed many mine-related rules.
• As Peter drove deeper into the hills, the group passed another large cave, and Peter said no one knew what lay at the ends of the caves because they were too deep to explore.
• Kraft told Yvonne not to read in the carriage, and the group continued their journey without yet finding the mineral.

Kraft investigated miners’ lung problems by selling them cloth masks, then explained to William that his village visits also helped him trace an outsider who had traveled deeper into the mountains. He learned that someone from outside had settled in a neighboring village a few years earlier.

• Kraft examined the red ore and confirmed it was iron ore, while William observed the miners’ exposure to dust and breathing problems.
• Kraft sold masks with a supposed herbal treatment to encourage miners to wear them and see whether their coughs and sneezes eased.
• Kraft told William that the villages’ scarcest resource was outsiders, making stories about them easier to track than the movement of ore and food.
• Kraft revealed that he had been tracing an outsider whose tracks led deeper into the mountains.
• Kraft told William that two villagers had reported an outsider settling in a neighboring village a few years earlier.

Kraft and William led their group through drought-stricken mountains, where rockfalls and darkness forced them to abandon their carriage and continue on foot. As they walked by torchlight, Kraft noticed a disturbance in the group's footsteps and suddenly changed his pace.

• Kraft noticed that scattered boulders were unevenly distributed and that dark hollows could be seen on the slopes above them.
• When boulders blocked the road, William abandoned the carriage, and Kraft helped Yvonne onto the horse while Kup led it.
• Kraft found uprooted shrubs with mostly intact roots and asked William and Peter whether anything in the area could have pulled them out.
• The group lit torches and continued along the narrow mountain road after sunset, keeping quiet and close to the mountainside.
• Kraft broke the rhythm of the group's footsteps, told Kup to be quiet, and changed his pace again.