Recaps

Fan Ning comforted Hiran after Teacher Anton’s funeral, spent the day and evening at her house, and reassured her that Anton lived on through his music. That night, Fan Ning realized he was dreaming and used his key to keep Lu Adair conscious in the dream, as Inspiration surged through the key from the Astral World.

• Fan Ning and Hiran returned to Teacher Anton’s home, cleaned the villa, cooked dinner, and listened as Fan Ning played Anton’s late sonatas.
• Hiran confessed she kept imagining that her father was still alive, and Fan Ning told her Anton lived on through his music and works.
• Fan Ning played a piece he called “Barcarolle” for Hiran, then went to sleep in the guest room and set the Museum Key beside his pillow.
• Fan Ning dreamed he was walking with Lu Adair, recognized the scene as a dream after sensing the key, and asked Lu whether they would remember it in reality.
• Lu became aware of the dream and began sinking into the ground, so Fan Ning used golden threads to help him regain his footing.
• The Museum Key heated up and drew Inspiration from all directions, including a torrent from the entrance to the Migrant Surge, allowing Fan Ning to keep Lu conscious without feeling pressure.

Fan Ning used the museum Key to sustain a Shared Dream with Roy MacAdam and Lu, who mistook him for a powerful Knower. He agreed to write a string quartet for their Music Salon, then woke to find his bedroom brightly lit and wondered whether he had returned to Earth.

• Fan Ning noticed Roy MacAdam in the dream and learned that she and Lu had both been drawn into his Shared Dream after hearing his performances.
• Roy and Lu assumed Fan Ning was a high-rank or Deep Knower, while Fan Ning privately worked out how the Shared Dream had occurred and why the Key had distorted their impressions.
• Fan Ning agreed to attend Roy's Music Salon as a fellow student and accepted a commission for a string quartet dedicated to Lu's father.
• Roy and Lu arranged to rehearse the quartet after Wednesday's public class, with Roy on cello, Lu on viola, and Fan Ning choosing two violinists.
• Fan Ning dismissed Roy and Lu into other dreams, removed the museum Key from his dream, and woke to a brightly lit bedroom, wondering if he had returned to Earth.

Fan Ning used the Four-Fold Line Drift Waymarker and Luminous Essence Elixir to enter a deeper dream, where a church and its spiral-marked door led him into the Migrant Surge. He encountered the Radiance above the Radiance Tower, received secret knowledge about Candle and the Lord of Witnesses, and awoke transformed.

• Fan Ning discovered that his Key had produced a large pool of Luminous Essence Elixir and used the elixir to activate the Four-Fold Line Drift Waymarker.
• Fan Ning entered a dream of a church, found the Four-Fold Line symbol on its marble door, and watched his accumulated musical progress fill part of the spiral groove.
• Fan Ning passed through the door and found himself in the Migrant Surge, facing the Radiance above the Radiance Tower.
• Fan Ning received secret knowledge about Candle, Endless Fugue, and the Lord of Witnesses, while his Inspiration surged and the Radiance bestowed a gift upon his spirit.
• Fan Ning awoke at 1:40 a.m. and noticed a pale golden gleam in his eyes.

After reaching the Third-Rank Knower level, Fan Ning discovered that the Radiance’s Candle echo let him exchange temperatures between nearby areas. He sensed something wrong in the house and entered Hiran’s room to warn her.

• Fan Ning realized his spirit had advanced to nearly the late stage of the third rank and that he could perceive occult changes around him.
• Fan Ning tested his Candle gift by transferring heat between a burning match and a candle, then between snow-covered branches and a window, and concluded that it exchanged temperatures between nearby areas.
• Fan Ning wondered whether he could return to the church in a Clear Dream and questioned the Museum Key’s connection to Inspiration.
• Fan Ning sensed something wrong in the house, entered Hiran’s bedroom, and told her he felt something was amiss.

After advancing to Knower, Fan Ning sensed an erratic abnormal presence throughout the house and searched it with Hiran, but could not locate its source. Back in the bedroom, he saw a shadowy hand reaching out from the full-length mirror.

• Fan Ning used his new Inspiration to inspect Hiran's bedroom and noticed unusual Phase readings around the house.
• Fan Ning and Hiran searched the basement and first-floor rooms, but his sense of the abnormal presence kept disappearing and returning.
• Fan Ning followed a fleeting Phase trace through Teacher Anton's master bedroom, then gave up and returned with Hiran to their room.
• After Hiran fell asleep and Fan Ning began to doze, he saw a shadowy hand reach out from the full-length mirror and leapt from his chair in fright.

Fan Ning and Hiran fought off a gray-clad attacker who emerged from a mirror and tried to kill them. After Fan Ning’s Aether Body shield broke, he used his Inspiration to disable the attacker and knock him unconscious, then aimed the recovered revolver at him and demanded to know who he was and what he wanted.

• A blue figure emerged from the mirror and attacked Fan Ning with a dagger, but Fan Ning dodged and told Hiran to smash both mirrors.
• The attacker drew a revolver and fired at Hiran, so Fan Ning shielded her; his Aether Body absorbed the shots until repeated hits shattered its light screen.
• Fan Ning used his Inspiration to heat the attacker’s revolver, then struck him with a stool before he could fire again.
• The attacker recovered his dagger and threw it toward Hiran, but Fan Ning froze the man’s mask and breath, spoiling the throw, then knocked him down with another blow.
• Hiran picked up the revolver, and Fan Ning aimed it at the fallen attacker and demanded to know who he was and what he wanted.

Fan Ning captured and interrogated a gray-clad Knower who had been hired to abduct Hiran, then killed him to protect her. The information he uncovered connected the attacker’s gathering to Prudence Auction House and Cecil, leaving Fan Ning to consider a possible link between the hidden groups before calling the police.

• Fan Ning disarmed the gray-clad man, questioned him, and learned that an unknown client had hired him to take Hiran away.
• The man revealed that a secretive gathering organized by a woman calling herself Sylvia would meet Thursday at eight at 225 Finlay Street, near Prudence Auction House at 226 Finlay Street.
• Fan Ning shot and killed the gray-clad man after deciding that keeping him alive would endanger Hiran.
• Fan Ning connected the gathering’s time and location to the auction, Teacher Anton’s contact Spinn Cecil, and Group Leader Ram Cecil’s warning to Hiran.
• Fan Ning considered that Cecil might have allowed another hidden group to target Hiran, then told her to call the police.

Fan Ning and Hiran were questioned separately after killing an intruder, while the police investigated the crime scene and possible supernatural involvement. At ten in the morning, Benjamin Myers of the Special Inspection Office arrived and asked Fan Ning whether he was a Knower.

• Fan Ning told Officer Ellens that an intruder had attacked him and Hiran, and that he had seized the intruder's revolver and shot him once.
• Hiran gave the police brief answers, claiming she did not remember how the intruder entered or how the fight unfolded.
• The police let Hiran wait in the duty room and repeatedly questioned Fan Ning while they investigated the scene.
• Hiran called the number at 43 Katzton Street in East Mechelen District as Fan Ning had instructed, then returned to the Public Security Branch.
• Benjamin Myers arrived with a higher-ranking officer and asked Fan Ning three questions, beginning with whether he was a Knower.

Fan Ning faced Benjamin's questioning at the Special Inspection Office and tried to conceal his connection to the Guidance School and the events surrounding the killing. Benjamin tested Fan Ning's memories, but Fan Ning recognized the probing and blurred the details of the struggle before the test ended.

• Benjamin asked Fan Ning whether he was a Knower, and Fan Ning lied that he was not.
• Fan Ning told Benjamin that Professor Anton Conall had introduced him to the Guidance School and that he was considering clerical work there.
• Benjamin questioned Fan Ning about the scorched pistol grip and shattered mirror, then prepared a candle-and-crystal test to examine his memories.
• As Benjamin's test replayed the previous day's events, Fan Ning realized his memories were being read and sensed the phases of the Candle and the Wasteland at work.
• Fan Ning used his inspiration to blur the memories of the fight and shooting, allowing the replay to follow the version he had arranged.

Fan Ning passed Benjamin’s inspection, but the Special Inspection Office continued to suspect his connection to the Fractalist and kept him under surveillance. As Fan Ning and Hiran walked toward school, she asked about the piano teacher who had once helped her sister, then stopped with another question.

• Fan Ning convinced Benjamin that he was fine, and Benjamin let him leave the inspection room.
• Benjamin told Herman that Vincent van Ning was a leading suspect in the Fractalist case and ordered continued surveillance of Fan Ning as a possible key to the secret of The Remnant of the Musical Scale.
• Fan Ning walked with Hiran along Green Peacock Street, and she confirmed that he had contacted her sister’s piano teacher at the Woodpecker Inquiry Office.
• Hiran thanked Lord Viadlin for helping her sister, and Fan Ning promised not to let the same tragedy happen again.
• Near the university and its affiliated elementary grammar school, Hiran stopped and told Fan Ning that she still had a question.

Fan Ning visited the Guidance School to register as a Knower and learned that the Special Inspection Office tightly controlled Knower organizations and their recruitment. He left with the Candle elixir and a warning to be cautious as he entered the official Knower world.

• Hiran insisted that she wanted to become a Knower, and Fan Ning promised to discuss it with her after he learned more about the risks.
• Fan Ning visited the Guidance School, took the Undying Fire Waymarker and a vial of Candle elixir, and went to meet Dupont.
• Dupont had Fan Ning sign the documents to join the Guidance School and explained that his registration had to be approved by the Special Inspection Office.
• Dupont warned Fan Ning about the Office's strict controls and rapid enforcement, while Fan Ning found the contract terms appealing.

Fan Ning joined the Guidance School as a probationary Knower and learned how the organization divided mystical cases with rival groups. Dupont took him to register costly supplies and collect public-expense weapons, leading him into the branch's armory.

• Fan Ning signed the Guidance School documents, and Dupont explained the school’s jurisdiction, lack of background requirements, and small number of Knowers.
• Dupont told Fan Ning to avoid using mystical abilities publicly until the Special Inspection Office filed his registration.
• Fan Ning bought a Drift Waymarker and Candle-aspect Luminous Essence Elixir from Vimod for three hundred pounds.
• Dupont led Fan Ning through the office’s training floor and explained that the Woodpecker Restaurant helped fund the branch.
• Dupont brought Fan Ning to the fourth-floor armory to collect guns and bullets at public expense.

Fan Ning received a revolver and ammunition from Dupont, then discussed the Saint Leniya University incident, his rapid advancement, and the dangers of the mystical system. He began practicing at the shooting range and discovered his marksmanship was poor.

• Dupont selected a revolver for Fan Ning, explained its features, and gave him two boxes of ammunition.
• Fan Ning recounted Hiran's attack and the Special Inspection Office's questioning, and Dupont advised him not to attend Sylvia's gathering while the Guidance School investigated related incidents.
• Dupont warned Fan Ning that Benjamin was dangerous and might be watching him, then explained the uncertainties and risks of advancing through the Migrant Surge.
• Dupont gave Fan Ning the key to Office 209 and warned him to stay away from the restaurant's dangerous basement.
• Fan Ning practiced shooting at the ten-meter range, hit the target only once, and wondered whether he could become a master of outlining human bodies.

Fan Ning practiced with his revolver, settled into his new office, and transcribed Chopin's "Fantasy Impromptu" before meeting Qiong at Saint Leniya University. Qiong revealed that Nora Carr and Vulkan Harvey had been lovers and that they both attended a choir rehearsal in Chamber Hall No. 4 the night before their deaths, so she and Fan Ning set out to investigate what happened there.

• Fan Ning slowly practiced loading and aiming his revolver, then fired a dozen shots and scored between three and six rings at ten meters.
• Fan Ning explored Office 209, played its Ctesibius upright piano, and spent the afternoon transcribing Chopin's "Fantasy Impromptu."
• Vimod delivered Fan Ning a new briefcase and four pounds in banknotes as half a month's salary.
• Fan Ning went to Saint Leniya University to meet Qiong, who told him her investigation found that Nora Carr and Vulkan Harvey had been secret lovers.
• Qiong explained that Nora and Vulkan had both attended the Faculty of History and Literature choir rehearsal in Chamber Hall No. 4 the night before they died, and asked Fan Ning to take her there.

Qiong performed a Regression Revelation Ritual in the concert hall to glimpse the past of Nora Carr, while Fan Ning observed the ritual with his Inspiration. The ritual stirred the water in a basin, and Qiong looked into the mirror submerged at its bottom.

• Qiong asked Fan Ning to help prepare the concert hall as an altar, and he locked the door before assisting her.
• Qiong arranged candles and ritual objects, explained her invocation of Winter Wind, and began the ritual while Fan Ning observed her actions.
• Qiong prayed in Tulungalia, traced a boundary with a silver key, and asked to glimpse the flickering past of Nora Carr.
• Qiong burned a parchment bearing her name and opened a gap in the salt triangle, directing the ritual toward the basin of water.
• A cool wind swept through the hall, the ritual's Phases flowed toward the basin, and Qiong approached the mirror as the water rippled.

Fan Ning used Qiong’s mirror ritual to uncover scenes of rehearsals and gatherings in a concert hall, then planned a string quartet rehearsal while investigating how the scenes related to the recent incidents. After writing late into the night, he arrived at the conservatory the next day and noticed everyone staring at him.

• Fan Ning strengthened Qiong’s ritual with his Inspiration and saw scenes of a concert-hall rehearsal, including a young man and woman in the front row and, finally, his own face.
• Fan Ning and Qiong discussed the scenes and planned to rehearse his string quartet at Hall No. 4 with Hiran the next afternoon.
• Fan Ning told Hiran about the rehearsal, then wrote the quartet at Professor Anton’s villa and completed its first two movements before sleeping on the sofa.
• Fan Ning arrived early for classes at Saint Leniya Conservatory and noticed that the students were staring at him.

Fan Ning received money and an invitation from Roy MacAdam in front of a crowded lecture hall, provoking envy and rumors among the students. After Roy left, classmates swarmed him over promised sheet music and the envelope, and the classroom descended into chaos before class.

• Fan Ning entered the lecture hall and found students whispering about him and Roy.
• Roy MacAdam greeted Fan Ning, handed him a sealed envelope, and invited him to her salon, explaining she would arrive twenty minutes late that evening.
• Fan Ning discovered the envelope held five hundred pounds in banknotes, while the students grew jealous and speculated about its contents.
• A girl asked Fan Ning about the sheet music he had promised, and other students crowded around to demand copies of “Fantasy Impromptu.”
• More students accused Fan Ning of winning Roy's favor unfairly and challenged him to a duel, turning the classroom chaotic before class began.

Fan Ning escaped the crowd around his sheet music and learned that the second round of the Large-Scale Works Selection would be judged at a major city exhibition rather than at school. He considered the tougher competition and examined an invitation from Miss Roy along with a large payment.

• Murich quieted the students crowding Fan Ning, who distributed nine copies of “Fantasy Impromptu” and kept his manuscript.
• Fan Ning sat beside Galvin and used Inspiration to notice unusual blurring and colors in Galvin’s spiritual bodies.
• Galvin told Fan Ning that he had ranked tenth in the first round of the Small-Scale Works Selection and was composing a sonata for the second round.
• Galvin said the Large-Scale Works Selection’s second-round chamber works would be performed at Ufransel City Concert Hall and voted on in the New Works Exhibition Hall.
• Fan Ning considered how the broader, socially weighted voting system could affect his entry and opened Miss Roy’s salon invitation, finding ten fifty-gold-pound banknotes inside.

Fan Ning finished copying his string quartet and went with Hiran to No. 4 Small Chamber Hall, where Qiong was arguing with music students over the rehearsal space. After the students mocked Caloen and musicology majors, Fan Ning’s astral power unsettled them, and Lu Adair arrived to reveal that he was with Fan Ning’s group.

• Fan Ning read newspaper assessments of Anton Conall’s music, criticized the critics, and continued composing his string quartet.
• Fan Ning made five copies of the quartet at the Pushoer Publishing House printing service center, then picked up Hiran after class.
• Fan Ning and Hiran found Qiong arguing with music students over who could use No. 4 Small Chamber Hall for rehearsal.
• A horn player mocked Caloen and musicology students, so Fan Ning used his astral power to make the group stagger and feel disoriented.
• Lu Adair arrived, and when his group members complained about Fan Ning’s group, he angrily told them that he was with them.

Fan Ning secured Chamber Music Hall 1 and gathered Hiran, Qiong, Lu, and Roy to rehearse his D Minor String Quartet, "Death and the Maiden." The musicians tuned their instruments and prepared to begin their first sight-reading under Fan Ning's direction.

• Lu reprimanded Group Two's musicians for disrupting Fan Ning and arranged for Fan Ning to use Hall 1 while they moved to Hall 4.
• Fan Ning explained his connection to Lu to Qiong and Hiran, then introduced them to Roy when she arrived for the rehearsal.
• Fan Ning distributed the score for his quartet, dedicated to Marquis Paul MacAdam, and said he would use it for the Works Selection Competition's second-round test.
• Fan Ning instructed the musicians to play slowly, ignore expressive markings, and keep going after mistakes as he took up the baton.
• Hiran, Qiong, Lu, and Roy confirmed they were ready, and Fan Ning gave the downbeat to start the rehearsal.

Fan Ning led Hiran, Roy, Qiong, and Lu through their first rehearsal of his string quartet Death and the Maiden, and Roy was deeply moved by its second movement. After the others left, Fan Ning asked Qiong to perform the Regression Ritual again.

• Fan Ning conducted the quartet through all four movements and assessed each musician's performance.
• Lu praised the composition, and Roy described the second movement's imagery and revealed how strongly it had affected her.
• Hiran and Qiong shared their favorite parts of the piece, and Fan Ning gave the musicians pastries whose packaging Roy and Lu associated with the Guidance School.
• Roy asked to order pastries in bulk for the next Music Salon, while Lu offered to arrange printed parts for the quartet.
• After rehearsal, Fan Ning stayed with Hiran and Qiong and asked Qiong to perform the Regression Ritual again.

Fan Ning used Qiong’s ritual to revisit memories of the music hall and discovered that a man and woman who had approached him had also appeared at the scene of earlier student deaths. He suspected they had tried to harm him and failed, then left the investigation unresolved as he planned his next steps.

• Qiong performed a ritual at the music hall, and Fan Ning used his Inspiration to see fragments of the past, including Teacher Anton and two formally dressed strangers speaking with him.
• Fan Ning recognized the strangers as the same man and woman who had approached victims in Hall No. 4, linking them to events at both halls.
• Fan Ning told Qiong and Hiran that the pair may have caused two students to die and may have targeted him, but that their attempt had failed.
• Qiong went home, and Hiran arranged to meet her at the school gate before the auction the next evening.
• Fan Ning considered investigating Sylvia’s gathering or waiting for the Guidance School team, then prepared to study the Museum Key and the church associated with the Lord of Witnesses.

Fan Ning tested the Museum Key in a dream and discovered that it drew Luminous Substance from the Migrant Surge, producing valuable Key-Phase Luminous Essence Elixir. He then practiced shooting at the Woodpecker Inquiry Office, where Dupont began teaching him mysticism.

• Fan Ning used the Museum Key in the dream church, found no Luminous Substance there, and discovered that the church door still blocked his way out.
• Fan Ning entered the Astral World factory, where multicolored Luminous Substance gathered around the Museum Key, then woke to find a little over half a bottle of violet Luminous Essence Elixir.
• Fan Ning judged the Museum Key to be a valuable secret and kept it hanging around his neck.
• Fan Ning went to the Woodpecker Inquiry Office, practiced shooting, and played piano in his office.
• Dupont offered to teach Fan Ning the basics of mysticism and asked whether he had become proficient with his spiritual perception.

Dupont taught Fan Ning about Spirit Perception, Resonance, and the classification of Hidden Knowledge, emphasizing the dangers of studying it. As Dupont opened a book of translated fables, Fan Ning recognized the supposedly Ancient Chanizi manuscripts as distorted and scrambled Chinese.

• Dupont explained how Candle-phase Knowers used Spirit Perception and described the different forms it could take.
• Dupont gave Fan Ning books about Spirit Perception and Resonance, explaining that Resonance could create temporary protections and later be preserved as Spell Marks.
• Dupont outlined Hidden Knowledge as Secret History and four related categories: Migrant Surge, Phase, Mystic Ritual, and Knower.
• Dupont introduced a book about the dangers of Hidden Knowledge and began reading its Tulungalia text aloud in Hoffman.
• Fan Ning noticed that the book’s Ancient Chanizi manuscripts contained altered, disordered Chinese, and Dupont asked what was wrong.