Chapter Summaries

Russell and Carpenter discussed why the Hainalson Family might be involved in the struggle around the Side Tower, while keeping their knowledge and communications hidden. At Black Mystery Tower, Wester received an order from Felis Hainalson and wondered what Archmage Prout had given Rolando Short to make him so bold.

• Russell cut off outside communications from the Side Tower and told Carpenter that the probe was unlikely to bring trouble to them soon.
• Russell hinted that he had obtained more and better knowledge than the Standard Rune he shared, and Carpenter accepted that he was keeping a secret.
• Carpenter explained that she suspected her cousin’s potion and possible path to becoming an Official Mage were dangerous, and Russell urged her to keep studying.
• Wester told Felis Hainalson that Russell had cut off the call and likely controlled the Side Tower, and Felis ordered him to report any developments on Archmage Prout’s behalf.
• After Felis left, Wester wondered what Prout had given Rolando Short to make a Sixth-Circle Mage act so arrogantly.

Wester realized that people might suspect the Hainalson Family’s secret could improve magical aptitude, putting the family at risk of outside scrutiny. Felis returned to Rolando and explained his failed attempt to approach Carpenter, while his resentment over receiving fewer resources remained.

• Wester checked old apprentice records and found that Felis Hainalson had shown weak magical aptitude as a child.
• Wester concluded that Felis was Rolando’s son and worried that others might believe the Hainalson Family could improve an apprentice’s aptitude.
• Wester considered whether suspicion about the family’s methods could bring dangerous scrutiny upon them.
• Felis told Rolando that many mages had visited Wester and that Carpenter had ignored him.
• Felis explained that Carpenter knew his identity because his appearance led people to question her mother, and Rolando remarked on the difficulty of passing on a mage’s legacy.
• Felis looked out the window, jealous that Rolando’s other children had received more resources than he had.

Rolando weighed his plans to use Felis and his Hainalson connections while revealing he had accepted Prout’s potion and information to advance his own child. Felis rejected Rolando’s attempt to involve him, leaving Rolando to reassure his partner that their child’s future would secure their influence.

• Felis confronted Rolando over using him to test a Mind Power Potion, while Rolando recognized that Felis’s Mental Sea was recovering and the potion was genuine.
• Rolando asked Felis to visit Hainalson Manor and Carpenter’s home, but Felis warned that Ulrich could have him expelled from the family and refused to be publicly humiliated.
• Felis explained that the Hainalsons valued loyalty and would not betray their family cheaply, even if some members were dissatisfied with it.
• Felis told Rolando not to use his identity without warning, then left after saying Ulrich’s safety was protected by the mage in charge of Black Mystery Town.
• Rolando told the woman waiting behind him that he and Felis had no father-son affection and that he had cooperated with Prout for the sake of their own child’s future.
• Rolando claimed their child could become a student of the Kament Tower archmage and said Prout had shared important information about the tower masters’ future authority.

Rolando and Nanalie discussed Prout, Gilbert, and Aislin, while Rolando reflected on how their marriage had formed amid factional conflicts and old resentments. He considered exploiting Prout’s presence against Gilbert’s interests but kept his intentions from Nanalie.

• Nanalie questioned why Prout would choose to help them and argued that Gilbert could not influence Rute while Aislin remained in his way.
• Nanalie admitted that her hostility toward Aislin stemmed partly from losing access to resources through a former lover who died at Sia Tower.
• Rolando recalled how Nanalie’s troubles and conflict with Nicholson’s faction had given him the chance to marry her, though their relationship lacked love.
• Rolando reflected that Gilbert’s talent and Rute’s protection had stirred jealousy, while acknowledging that he could not challenge Gilbert directly.
• Rolando considered using Prout to target Gilbert’s interests through the Hainalson Family, but he concealed his plan from Nanalie.

Felis struggled with anger and unease after leaving the Hainalson Family, while Carpenter and Russell questioned why he had followed Rolando so readily. The chapter ended with Felis reacting to his neighbors’ music by tapping along to its rhythm.

• Felis recalled how the Hainalson Family had accepted and supported him, and feared the strange crystals in his Mental Sea after taking Rolando’s potion.
• Carpenter told Russell she suspected Felis had not willingly followed Rolando, and Russell said they could only wait for their teacher and hope Felis endured.
• Carpenter asked Russell to pass Felis a message that she did not consider him an enemy as long as he had not truly been expelled from the family.
• Felis heard Hendrick and his brother making noise next door, covered his head, and tapped along to their music.

Russell and Carpenter waited in Gilbert’s underground passage after Aislin borrowed it and two groups approached. Aislin arrived with Nanalie, whose exchange with her left the purpose of their urgent visit unresolved.

• Felis tossed and moaned on his bed as the music grew louder.
• Aislin told Russell she would use Gilbert’s underground passage, and Russell said he and Carpenter would stay out of contact until their teacher returned.
• Aislin probed whether Russell and Carpenter needed resources, then praised the Hainalson Family’s luck and called Russell troublesome.
• Russell and Carpenter discussed Aislin and the unpredictable life she led.
• Around ten in the evening, the siblings sensed two groups separately touch the Alarm Formation and enter less than ten minutes apart.
• Nanalie challenged Aislin for borrowing Gilbert’s territory, and Aislin said she had come because Nanalie claimed there was something urgent.

Nanalie told Aislin that Felis feared the apprentice Mind Power Potion was dangerous, prompting Aislin to consider testing its effects. Aislin warned Nanalie that Gilbert would punish anyone he believed had harmed him, while Nanalie revealed that her revenge also stemmed from hatred of Nicholson.

• Aislin warned Nanalie that Gilbert was someone neither of them could afford to provoke, and Nanalie agreed she had no intention of provoking the Hainalson Family.
• Nanalie told Aislin that Rolando had obtained a Mind Power Potion from Prout and given Felis a weaker apprentice version, which left Felis afraid to keep meditating.
• Aislin realized apprentices might be especially sensitive to the potion and considered investigating its effects, while Nanalie worried that Felis could be exposed as the only apprentice who had taken it.
• Aislin warned Nanalie that Gilbert investigated everyone involved in anything he disliked and would retaliate based on his own judgment, even without evidence.
• Nanalie said Archmage Rute was willing to protect Aislin if she served her faction, and admitted she cooperated with Aislin because she hated Nicholson too.

Aislin explained why Nicholson could not be blamed for Nanalie’s teacher’s fate and warned Nanalie not to mistake their shared enemies for an alliance. She arranged a plan to keep Felis safe from Kament Tower’s suspicions and showed Nanalie Gilbert’s secret passage network.

• Aislin told Nanalie that her teacher had been manipulated and that Nicholson had not been responsible for his death, urging her not to direct her resentment at another victim.
• Nanalie agreed not to act against Nicholson directly, while Aislin warned that their contract did not make them allies.
• Aislin predicted that Prout would soon be removed from Black Mystery Tower because his attack on the Hainalson Family violated Kament Tower’s preference for surface-level harmony.
• Aislin told Nanalie to have Felis stay in the meditation room and imitate the symptoms of people who had fused the potion with their spiritual power.
• Aislin revealed a map of Gilbert’s secret passage with three entrances near places Nanalie frequented, then warned her not to connect another passage to it.

Russell explained the Hainalson Family’s history with the Defense Tower and why Gilbert was taking medicine and entering seclusion as the family faced pressure. After Nanalie returned, Felis noticed her attitude toward him had changed and was shaken by what it implied, leaving him with happy yet bittersweet feelings.

• Russell told Carpenter that Aislin knew five underground routes and explained how the family’s hidden passages were protected.
• Russell explained that the Hainalson Family had not been closely tied to the Defense Tower and had survived its destruction, though its magical legacy was ruined.
• Russell said Gilbert had already recovered enough that the medicine would aid his climb back to strength rather than serve as his sole lifeline.
• Carpenter worried about Felis, but Russell said Nanalie’s changed attitude would help Felis understand what had happened.
• Felis noticed Nanalie’s changed attitude, realized Carpenter’s standing could affect the factional struggle, and felt both happy and bittersweet.

Felis learned that the potion was gradually altering an apprentice’s thoughts and feared what might happen to him without his allies’ support. Meanwhile, Russell sent Carpenter away to study before checking a yellow warning light in Gilbert’s monitoring array.

• Felis examined his Mental Sea and reconsidered Ulrich’s advice about the Black Mystery Tower’s meditation method.
• Felis received a message that strange gray energy was changing an apprentice’s thoughts and that the apprentice might soon be impossible to read reliably.
• Felis worried that the sealed experiment left the apprentices no chance to escape and wondered whether he could escape if he lacked support.
• Russell confronted Carpenter for neglecting her studies and ordered her to finish a stack of books in three days.
• Russell entered the Chamber of Secrets and saw the monitoring array flashing a yellow warning light.

Russell altered the underground passage formations to keep Aislin and Nanalie from being exposed, then created a backup Chamber of Secrets linked to a passage Felis knew. He sent Felis a secret map and seal, leaving his rescue to chance.

• Russell severed the formation chain controlling the Outer Ring passage and changed its entrances to display warnings that they had been deactivated.
• Russell adjusted other formation chains to add warning signals, then created a backup Chamber of Secrets along the passage between Wester's Apprentice Tower and the library.
• Russell reflected on how Felis's mother had chosen Rolando and how the Hainalson Family's politics had trapped Felis in misfortune.
• Russell drew a map on a thin strip of paper, stamped it with a tiny seal, and sent it toward Felis as a small chance of help.

Russell used a magical insect to try to help Felis while reflecting on the strange identity and history of his teacher, Gilbert. Felis’s father Rolando then ordered him to appear around the tower, leaving Felis to recognize how badly Rolando misjudged the people around him.

• Russell sent a paper insect carrying Felis’s recorded aura through a secret passage, hoping it would find Felis before danger struck.
• Russell told Carpenter he had done all he could to help Felis and warned her not to cause trouble for him.
• Rolando ordered Felis to leave his room and walk near the Apprentice Tower and library so people would see him.
• Felis felt speechless at Rolando’s inability to understand his family, students, or the people influencing him.

Felis reflected on the hidden loyalties surrounding Rolando, Nanalie, and Rolando’s children, concluding that the nanny who cared for the boys belonged to Nanalie’s side. He left his room believing he no longer needed to guard against that side and suspecting that two apprentices close to Rolando were manipulating him under outside influence.

• Felis noticed that Rolando’s youngest son trusted his nanny and reasoned that she was loyal to Nanalie.
• Felis recalled how Nanalie had struggled to protect Rolando’s children from unsuitable nannies while factions watched her choices.
• Felis concluded that people connected to Archmage Rute may have helped Nanalie arrange for one of her own people to care for the children.
• Felis decided he likely did not need to guard against Nanalie’s side and left his room, expecting his movements to alert the people next door.
• Felis suspected two female apprentices were using jealousy to control Rolando and that the Kament Tower faction had placed them near him to keep watch.

Felis reflected on Rolando’s schemes and acted like a paranoid half-madman in the library and garden. He discovered a magically disguised letter from Russell and realized Russell had used Carpenter’s aura to send it, suspecting that Russell wanted Carpenter to distance herself from him.

• Felis decided that he could ignore Rolando, whose fate would depend on whether he drank the medicine before Gilbert returned.
• Felis entered the library and used his genuine disgust to convincingly act like a paranoid half-madman, unnerving the people around him.
• Felis strolled through the garden and considered making his apparent madness his future persona.
• Felis noticed an insect bearing an aura connected to Carpenter and allowed it to land on his hand.
• Felis recognized the insect as a letter sent by Russell through a spell and bitterly concluded Russell had disguised its origin to tell Carpenter not to worry about him.

Felis received a map and instructions from Russell pointing him to a moving Chamber of Secrets as a refuge, so he began visiting the garden near its entrance. Meanwhile, Nanalie confronted Rolando over resources and observed his two female students, leaving convinced that Kament Tower was behind their behavior and wondering if Rolando had an idiot aura.

• Russell sent Felis a map to the secret passage and warned him to use the Chamber of Secrets if his life was in danger.
• Felis identified the passage entrance beneath a rock and decided to make the garden his second home, visiting it for three days.
• Nanalie visited Rolando's Mage Tower and demanded resources for her younger son, using his future spellcasting path as her reason.
• Nanalie observed Rolando's two female students acting more arrogantly and suspected Kament Tower had ordered them to stay near him.
• Nanalie left Rolando's Mage Tower livid after the women gave her provocative looks, and she wondered whether Rolando had an idiot aura.

Russell learned that Felis was becoming increasingly volatile under the potion’s influence and warned Carpenter that the potion was affecting him before it had fully merged with his Mental Sea. Felis now faced a choice between waiting for their teacher to return or risking his life to cultivate a modified mental power method, and Russell sent him a warning before he could be confined.

• Felis received Russell’s Insect Letter and warned him not to trust Nanalie or the person cooperating with her.
• As the potion intensified Felis’s destructive thoughts, he wondered whether Carpenter might contact him and provide poison.
• Russell told Carpenter that Felis hated Nanalie and her sons and seemed increasingly agitated and destructive.
• Russell explained that Felis could either wait for their teacher to return or attempt to protect his soul by cultivating a modified Black Mystery Tower Mental Power Method.
• Russell sent Felis another Insect Letter, warning him that he might soon be locked in a meditation room.

Felis hesitated to begin meditation until Rolando ordered him into seclusion, while Russell stopped monitoring the secret meetings after deciding the danger to the Hainalson Family had passed. Hill noticed Russell’s change and was satisfied with his judgment and decisiveness.

• Felis read Russell’s warning about Carpenter’s concern and considered whether to revise his meditation method before his situation worsened.
• Felis learned that Nanalie’s first apprentice had been confined after a strange change to his soul and views, and he copied the Black Mystery Tower meditation method to preserve his clarity.
• Rolando ordered Felis to spend a month meditating in his private Mage Tower room, and Felis agreed rather than draw suspicion by resisting.
• Russell concluded that the Black Mystery Tower’s leaders were focused on the mental power potion and no longer posed an immediate threat to the Hainalson Family, so he stopped watching the secret meetings.
• Hill noticed Russell had stopped monitoring the underground passage and was satisfied with his keen intuition and decisiveness.

Hill reflected on the worlds that had tried to keep him and reaffirmed that he wanted to remain a free Mage rather than become a god. After watching Russell return to his studies, Hill considered whether Adrian could understand the subtle spell Runes he had learned to read.

• Hill realized that Toril and other worlds had tried to tempt him to stay, but he still wanted to return home and avoid becoming a god.
• Hill decided that the Red Dragon and Russell would handle the remaining affairs involving Sia Tower, while he focused on teaching Russell.
• Hill watched Russell calm down, resume spell training, and press Carpenter to study.
• Hill recognized that his travels and work adapting spells had deepened his understanding of magic and its Runes.
• Hill wondered whether Adrian could understand the meaning carried by the curves in spell incantations.

After Sia Tower abruptly disbanded its dragon-hunting force, Aislin and Nanalie discussed Felis’s worsening danger and argued over who would bear responsibility. Hill listened from underground, considered Russell’s suspicions and motives, and concluded that Felis’s corruption could still be resisted with enough resolve.

• Sia Tower dismissed the Black Mystery Tower’s tower masters and the other mages who had joined its hunt for the Red Dragon, leaving the Black Mystery Tower mocked for its losses and poor conduct.
• Aislin and Nanalie worried that Felis would soon emerge from Rolando’s tower after taking the Mind Power Potion, while Rolando had taken it in hopes of advancing before Kament Tower returned.
• Nanalie asked Aislin what to do about Felis, and Aislin advised confining him before he succumbed completely, placing responsibility on Felis and his father, Rolando.
• Hill overheard their conversation and reflected that Russell had likely discovered his identity and was helping Felis because he believed Hill had no reason to intervene.
• Hill reasoned that the potion’s corruption could be escaped by someone with sufficient willpower and resolve.

Hill analyzed how the Mind Power Potion could destabilize the Black Enigma Tower and leave Nanalie framed for Felis’s death. He concluded that Glasya might have arrived in the world, prompting Fengo to withdraw his forces.

• Hill reasoned that Rolando’s success with the potion would tempt mages from rival factions and fuel conflict within the Black Enigma Tower.
• Hill concluded that the plotters intended Felis to die and would make Nanalie the scapegoat by manipulating Rolando’s suspicions.
• Hill expected Rute to question Gilbert after his return, while the potion’s spread and the Tower’s upheaval gave Gilbert cover for his recovery and advancement.
• Hill decided the Black Enigma Tower’s troubles mattered less than why Fengo had recalled his forces.
• Hill suspected Glasya had arrived in person and made Fengo abandon the Red Dragon to pay his respects.