Chapter Summaries

Beatrice saw the enormous Skyveil Behemoth pass her airship and collapsed from the pressure, but her fragile condition unexpectedly improved after she vomited. Gaia and Zoe worried that bringing her to Castel could trigger a dangerous episode of Castel Syndrome.

• Beatrice watched the Skyveil Behemoth emerge from storm clouds and learned that it carried a Storm Generator.
• The Skyveil Behemoth passed overhead, leaving Beatrice overwhelmed and unable to breathe before she collapsed into the furnace.
• Beatrice’s Anchor began to loosen, but whispers calmed the Sea of Unconsciousness before Gaia and Zoe checked on her.
• Beatrice’s Pollution Breath blasted Gaia and Zoe away, and they worried that she might not survive contact with Castel Syndrome on the island.
• Beatrice vomited in the combustion chamber and began to recover, then wondered why her condition had improved after being stimulated.

Beatrice concluded that an unknown evil god’s whispers had altered or corrupted the Pollution inside her, but resolved never to use its power again. Gaia and Zoe discussed how Castel might stabilize Beatrice and wondered whether the island’s reality was shaped by a persistent collective will.

• Beatrice realized that the whispers had coincided with her recovery and began analyzing the unknown evil god’s power.
• Beatrice suspected that the being could corrupt or transform Pollution, then vowed to remain free rather than borrow its power again.
• Gaia and Zoe debated whether Beatrice could be treated outside Castel and concluded that Castel itself was essential to her survival.
• Gaia explained that Transcendents who endured Castel Syndrome became more stable on the island and less vulnerable to the Sea of Unconsciousness.
• Gaia asked whether the collective will of Castel’s inhabitants had been continuously affecting reality.

Zoe realized the Steam Engine could suppress Beatrice’s pollution and wondered whether Castel’s Stellar Furnace could help even more. But when Monica arrived as the promised “legendary doctor,” she proposed Nora-style amputation as the cure for Beatrice’s pollution problems.

• Zoe asked whether the Steam Engine suppressed the pollution inside Beatrice, then suggested Castel’s Stellar Furnace might work better.
• A lookout reported that Castel was sending a legendary doctor, prompting Gaia and Zoe to request an ordinary doctor instead.
• Monica arrived aboard the airship and examined Beatrice, whose body was near collapse from accumulated pollution.
• Monica called Beatrice’s pollution breath a powerful way to defeat Transcendents, then recommended Nora-style amputation as treatment.
• Beatrice quietly asked Monica how she would amputate her.

Monica proposed replacing Beatrice’s failing body parts with machinery and burning her in the Stellar Furnace, but Gaia explained why Beatrice’s Pollution would make such treatment ineffective. The group brought Beatrice to Castel with no solution beyond waiting to see what happened, while Beatrice remained strangely calm and wondered whether the approaching city had something to do with it.

• Monica proposed amputating Beatrice’s deteriorating parts, replacing them with steel, and burning her body in the Stellar Furnace.
• Gaia explained that Beatrice could still emit Pollution from any place she believed was her mouth, making the proposed treatment unreliable.
• Gaia joked that Gwen’s healing by hammering people was more effective than Monica’s plan, leaving Monica shocked.
• Beatrice wondered whether the whispers or Castel’s approach had stabilized her mind as the group arrived at the city’s air harbor.
• The group warned Beatrice that Castel’s machinery and factories might frighten her, but Beatrice felt confident they would not.

Beatrice arrived at Castel and was unnerved by the Banshees secretly watching her until Monica made them look away. Zoe brought her toward a new vehicle, which Beatrice learned ran on Nitroglycerin rather than steam.

• Beatrice disembarked at Castel's air harbor and sensed a crowd of unseen gazes fixed on her.
• Monica ordered the Banshees to stop spying, and they all looked away at once, frightening Beatrice further.
• Gaia reassured Beatrice that Lord Theus would keep her safe, and Zoe suggested they take a car.
• Beatrice expected a miniaturized steam locomotive but saw a horse-less vehicle approaching instead.
• Zoe explained that the vehicle used internal combustion, and Beatrice learned it ran on Nitroglycerin.

Theus's search for oil stalled his internal combustion engine project, so Monica and Tata developed a powerful nitroglycerin-powered Blast Engine. Monica prepared to demonstrate the resulting car to Beatrice, who grew alarmed as Gaia strapped herself into the back seat.

• Theus failed to find oil in Gem Bay, Tis, or the Northern Territory, and Tata suggested that the world's supposed oil might be Pollution.
• Theus passed the coal-gas engine project to Richard, and after it changed hands, Monica built a nitroglycerin-powered engine that repeatedly exploded during testing.
• Tata became interested in the Blast Engine and helped bring a car powered by it before Theus.
• Monica invited Beatrice into the car and described nitroglycerin as heart medicine while Zoe urged her not to mention its dangers.
• Gaia strapped herself into the back seat with a harness, and Monica asked Beatrice if she wanted to find out how fast the car accelerated.

Monica took Beatrice for a wildly fast drive, and Beatrice began to understand why Monica loved racing. Monica then activated the car’s explosive launch, sending Beatrice skyward, where a parachute deployed as she fell.

• Monica boasted that her car accelerated from zero to one hundred kilometers per hour in 0.4 seconds, while Zoe and Gaia warned her not to unlock its dangerous settings.
• Monica drove through the air harbor with Beatrice, Zoe, and Gaia aboard, and the force of the ride left Beatrice terrified.
• As the car raced along, Beatrice felt an unfamiliar sense of freedom and agreed when Monica asked if they should go faster.
• Monica pressed the red button, blasting the car forward with scarlet flames and flinging Beatrice into the air with a door and seat attached to her.
• Beatrice realized she was falling from above a volcano, but the seat beneath her exploded and deployed a parachute.

Monica launched Beatrice into the sky with a powered paraglider, turning the flight into a reckless thrill ride while Beatrice discovered an unexpected taste of freedom. Theus tried to stop them, then learned they were flying over District 17 with the church’s anti-aircraft guns tracking them.

• Monica launched Beatrice into the sky, leaving the car on the ground as the Banshees, Gaia, and Zoe watched in alarm.
• Monica showed Beatrice how to use the paraglider’s rings, and Beatrice’s fear gave way to exhilaration as she flew.
• Beatrice pulled the right-hand ring, which Monica revealed was a tenfold throttle, and sped away among startled seagulls.
• Beatrice pressed the seat buttons for help, but Monica explained they controlled ventilation, heating, massage, and supposed zero gravity.
• Theus confronted Monica through a private chat and ordered her to slow Beatrice down, then learned the brake was in the car below.
• Theus contacted the Banshees’ duty room, where he learned Beatrice and Monica were in District 17 and the church’s anti-aircraft guns had them in their sights.

Theus sent a rescue team after Monica as she flew Beatrice over a volcano and showed her Castel’s Mantle Network, which fed magma into the Stellar Furnace. Beatrice realized the system could turn a natural hazard into a resource—and perhaps a weapon—while Monica revealed its pipelines connected to the Webway and Castel Cathedral.

• Theus ordered Banshees to rescue Monica, and they slid through a waterslide into the sea.
• Monica explained to Beatrice that their flight relied on igniting Nitroglycerin behind the seat as an external combustion engine.
• Monica showed Beatrice the Mantle Network, which pumped magma from the volcano into the Stellar Furnace to increase its power and prevent eruptions.
• Beatrice wondered whether Castel might someday use the volcano as a weapon.
• Monica pointed out that the Mantle Network’s pipelines ran through the Webway system toward Castel Cathedral.

Beatrice and Monica escaped the anti-aircraft guns by parachuting into the sea, where Nini chased them to get an interview. Beatrice climbed onto Monica’s back to help her outrun Nini, then prepared to fight back as Nini attacked with water arrows.

• Monica deployed a white flag to identify herself to the anti-aircraft team, and she and Beatrice parachuted into the sea.
• Banshees rescued Beatrice, but Monica fled when she saw Nini racing toward them with a notebook and camera.
• Beatrice climbed onto Monica’s back, reducing their water resistance and helping Monica pull ahead of Nini.
• Nini fired water arrows at Monica and Beatrice, and Monica urged Beatrice to fight back.
• Beatrice looked toward Nini and puffed out her cheeks, preparing to use herself as a Dragon Breath Cannon.

Beatrice and Monica fought Nini in an aerial battle, but after Nini lost, Castel’s law enforcers arrested her and impounded Monica for unrelated offenses. Beatrice received a ticket and reimbursement invoice, then learned that the lord was waiting for her.

• Beatrice rode Monica through the air while fighting Nini with polluted breath and water arrows, and the Banshees watched the battle unfold.
• Beatrice and Monica landed after Nini was defeated, and law enforcers took Nini away for attacking someone with water arrows.
• A law enforcer fined Monica for unlicensed driving and had her impounded, while Beatrice received a ticket and an invoice for reimbursement.
• The law enforcer told Beatrice to pay her fine and attend a corrective lecture, then said the lord was waiting for her.

Theus ordered Beatrice brought to the main cathedral after learning that several legendary beings were headed to greet her. Zoe and Gaia escorted Beatrice through Castel’s hidden Webway, where she learned about the city’s underground network and saw a steam subway train arrive with eerie heads poking out of its roof hatches.

• Theus ordered Beatrice brought directly to the main cathedral and forbade anyone from interfering with the transfer.
• Zoe and Gaia took Beatrice toward a hidden Webway entrance, and Beatrice recalled her exhilarating time with Monica.
• Zoe explained that Castel’s Webway connected much of the city and had been built by Banshees since Beatrice’s last visit.
• Zoe told Beatrice that Blood Port had gas service and planned an electric subway, startling Beatrice with the thought of electricity and pollution.
• A steam locomotive arrived at the underground station, and Beatrice stopped when rows of heads emerged from the hatches above its carriages.

Beatrice, Zoe, and Gaia traveled by subway to Castel Cathedral, where Beatrice saw the vast underground station and sensed pollution flowing through the Stellar Furnace’s pipes. Zoe warned Beatrice that they would pass the Furnace on the way to the lord’s office, but Beatrice said she was not afraid.

• Beatrice noticed a Banshee standing in the subway carriage with a standing ticket and reflected on how easily she had accepted the nonhuman races.
• Gaia explained that Castel mostly relied on Steam Engines, while the Faithguard Army favored Monica’s explosive Concussion Engines.
• Beatrice and the others arrived at Castel Cathedral’s huge underground station, where Paternoster Elevators carried passengers between platforms.
• Beatrice saw the Stellar Furnace’s many pipes and sensed pollution flowing through them, along with a strange feeling of closeness.
• Zoe told Beatrice they would pass by the Stellar Furnace before reaching the lord’s office, and Beatrice insisted that the evil god inside would not scare her.

Beatrice, Zoe, and Gaia reached the Stellar Furnace level, where Beatrice saw the enormous evil god sealed inside and fell into permanent madness. The being stirred, and an alarm reported that the furnace’s pressure and output had surged beyond safe limits.

• Beatrice reassured Zoe and Gaia that evil gods were usually manageable, based on what she had learned at the Candlelight Society.
• As the elevator reached the Stellar Furnace level, Beatrice saw an enormous eye through an observation window and was overwhelmed by its presence.
• Beatrice’s forbidden knowledge broke through her defenses, and the evil god’s gaze drove her into permanent madness.
• The evil god reached toward Beatrice’s body and looked out through the window toward Theus.
• Theus felt a brief tremor in his office, then a Banshee reported that the Stellar Furnace’s pressure and output had exceeded the warning threshold.

The Stellar Furnace’s evil god briefly stirred after seeing Beatrice, then became calm, leaving her inexplicably recovered from madness and Theus convinced she could suppress it. Theus considered keeping Beatrice close as a possible way to control other dangerous power sources, including the one at Blood Port.

• Theus ordered the steelworks to raise production, but canceled the plan when the Stellar Furnace’s output returned to normal.
• Beatrice realized that she had recovered from permanent madness and that the Pollution within her had become docile.
• Tata told Theus that the evil god had calmed after looking through the observation window at Beatrice.
• Theus concluded that Beatrice might be able to pacify the evil god and told Tata to leave while he investigated.
• Tata suggested keeping Beatrice nearby to help suppress the power source at Blood Port, then passed her and her companions as they entered Theus’s office.

Beatrice reached Theus’s office in Castel, anxious that her gifts and knowledge would be of little use in the city of miracles. After Theus mistook her embarrassment for nausea, they discussed her condition, and Beatrice realized the pollution inside her had become unnaturally still, as if it feared something.

• Beatrice hesitated outside Theus’s office, doubting whether she could help Castel with the technology and information she had brought.
• Theus opened the door after learning Beatrice had stood outside for a long time and mistakenly tried to comfort her as if she were about to vomit.
• Beatrice entered the office, sat down, and told Theus that her body remained in terrible condition but had not worsened.
• Beatrice sensed that the pollution inside her had stopped moving and seemed afraid of something.

Beatrice discovered that the Stellar Furnace had rendered the Pollution inside her completely dormant, and Theus arranged for her to recover at the main cathedral. After she asked to bring the airship’s steam engine, Theus ordered her room renovated in boiler style, while Gaia and Zoe teased her with a rumor that she was his illegitimate daughter.

• Beatrice suspected the Stellar Furnace was suppressing the Pollution inside her, and Theus agreed that Pollution feared him.
• Theus told Beatrice to rest at the main cathedral and arranged for Richard to prepare an ordinary treatment plan.
• Beatrice asked to bring the steam engine that had cared for her on the airship, and Theus ordered it moved to her bedroom and her room remodeled like a boiler.
• Gaia and Zoe teased Beatrice with Nini’s rumor that she was Theus and Empress Isabella’s illegitimate daughter.
• Beatrice chased Zoe around the office, then fled in embarrassment when Theus returned to find the room in chaos.

Theus assigned Gaia and other researchers to work on human mechanization while Zoe brought Beatrice to her room in Castel. They discovered the room had been remodeled into a boiler, and Beatrice denied that she had asked for it.

• Theus assigned Gaia, Richard, both Noras, and Chloe to help complete the human mechanization project.
• Theus asked Zoe to keep Beatrice company and look after her in Castel.
• Zoe led Beatrice to a room beside the medical room and the banshees’ duty room.
• Zoe and Beatrice opened the door and found a room built to resemble a steel furnace chamber.
• Zoe confronted the banshees, who said Theus had ordered the boiler renovations because Beatrice supposedly liked living in one.
• Beatrice denied requesting the renovations, and the banshees explained that the room also had a blower and Pollution pipes.

Theus finalized the research plans and prepared to use Count Bazel as the Pollution source for a new Stellar Furnace in Blood Port. With the furnace design and construction plans completed, he planned a grand ceremony to celebrate Bazel’s reemployment.

• The Banshees proposed renovating a boiler for Beatrice to live in, and Zoe teased her about needing two bathrooms.
• Theus confirmed that Beatrice’s commotion with Zoe was only horseplay and settled the research plans with Richard, Gaia, and Chloe.
• Theus asked Gaia to compile detailed military factory production data and said the prince’s side would declare war within a month.
• Theus decided Count Bazel’s White Calamity Pollution would power a Stellar Furnace to address Blood Port’s energy shortage.
• Theus completed the Blood Port furnace plans and prepared a ceremony to celebrate Bazel’s reemployment.

Bettis met Grisha, a young veteran from the Northern Territory who had lost his right hand and both legs, while he bought fried fish at her shop. She gave him a fresh serving and volunteered to guide him and his comrades through a changed Blood Port as they headed to customs and the Mystic Society.

• Bettis accidentally dropped Grisha's fried fish and noticed his steel prosthetic hand and wooden legs.
• Grisha ate the dirtied fish, told Bettis about surviving hunger in the Northern Territory, and explained that he had fought with Lady Gwen before joining the Expeditionary Force.
• After a comrade called Grisha to report to customs, Bettis packed him fresh fried fish and chased after him to offer directions.
• Bettis demonstrated that Blood Port had changed so much that Grisha's comrades could no longer recognize its buildings, then led the group toward customs.
• Grisha told Bettis he had visited Blood Port before, gone to Castel, and secretly returned home.