Chapter Summaries

Fan Ning woke in an empty concert hall in an unfamiliar world, where he found strange remains onstage and a message demanding that he recreate music to stay alive. After the police found him and his memories revealed he had taken over the identity of Caloin Van Ning, he faced questioning about his inexplicable smartphone.

• Fan Ning woke after the concert and found a message on his phone reading, “recreate the music within your memory,” with a counter at 0/100.
• Fan Ning shone his phone’s flashlight onstage and saw two distorted humanoid outlines before his phone died.
• Fan Ning fled the hall and was stopped by police, whose language triggered memories of Caloin Van Ning, a musicology student in the Theolan Empire.
• Fan Ning awoke in a police room and saw the faint 0/100 message still before his eyes.
• Newman Ellens questioned Fan Ning and placed his touchscreen smartphone on the desk, leaving Fan Ning unsure how to explain it.

After learning that Professor Anton, Vulkan Harvey, and Nora Carr had all died in bizarre incidents, Fan Ning left the police station and hurried to find Hilan Conall. Hilan said she was hearing strange sounds and had something from her father to give him, so Fan Ning took her toward the academy’s practice room.

• Fan Ning told Inspector Ellens about the lecture and his last gathering with Anton, then learned that Vulkan, Nora, and Anton had died.
• The officers seized Fan Ning’s phone and warned him to follow his normal routine while the Special Inspection Office investigated.
• Fan Ning left the station and suffered whispers and hallucinations as he crossed the city toward Saint Leniya University.
• Hilan Conall met Fan Ning near the university gate and said she was hearing sounds and had something from her father for him.
• Fan Ning took Hilan’s handbag and led her to the academy’s practice room, recalling that a mysterious message seemed to urge him to recreate music for listeners.

Fan Ning played Beethoven’s Für Elise and discovered that listeners’ attention created a resonance that quieted the whispers and increased his progress. The mysterious key seemed to ease Hiran’s discomfort, and Fan Ning opened Professor Anton’s letter to learn more.

• Fan Ning asked Cecil for leave to attend Professor Anton’s funeral, but Cecil refused and urged Hiran to stay with his family after the funeral.
• Fan Ning agreed to attend the Works Selection Competition and challenged Cecil over his family’s failure to support Hiran at the funeral.
• Fan Ning played Für Elise for Hiran and sensed invisible threads connecting him to listeners, while his progress rose from [0/100] to [3/100].
• Fan Ning’s blackened family key warmed against his chest, and Hiran felt a little better after he placed the necklace around her neck.
• Fan Ning broke the seal on Professor Anton’s letter addressed to him.

After reading Anton Conall’s final letter and diary, Fan Ning learned that his teacher’s experiments with dreams and the Mystic Chords had become dangerous before his death. He went to register for the Works Selection Competition’s large-work improvisation test, where classmates questioned his decision and Cecil watched with contempt.

• Fan Ning read Anton Conall’s letter, which urged him to finish their symphony, enter it in the Works Selection Competition, and study piano with Lord Viadlin.
• Fan Ning examined Anton Conall’s diary and found records of his dream experiments, his pursuit of becoming a Knower, and his warnings not to record, test, or control dreams.
• Fan Ning headed to the competition registration after parting ways with someone who went to help with the school’s funeral preparations.
• Fan Ning joined the short line for the black envelopes, which were for large orchestral works requiring an improvisation test.
• Musicology students and other onlookers questioned Fan Ning’s choice, while Cecil asked what grand work he planned to write.

Fan Ning registered to write a symphony for his graduation and prepared for the conservatory’s improvisation test while hearing more about the accidents connected to Professor Anton Conall. The hall lights revealed the grand piano onstage, and Fan Ning focused on the exam envelope as he imagined what he would play.

• Murich silenced the students gossiping about Fan Ning, and Dean Belen Gould encouraged Fan Ning to show his abilities in the improvisation test.
• Fan Ning registered for the large-scale work exam and told Gould he planned to write a symphony for graduation.
• Fan Ning reunited with Galvin, who said Professor Anton’s obituary would appear soon and that he planned to attend the funeral.
• Fan Ning learned from Galvin that three people, including Professor Anton, had died, and that rumors linked the deaths.
• Galvin described his unusually well-paid part-time job but refused to reveal its details because of a confidentiality agreement.
• The hall’s lights illuminated a Boesius Piano, and Fan Ning began imagining his improvisation as he touched the exam envelope.

At Saint Leniya University’s graduation concert, contestants improvised on music drawn from sealed envelopes as professors judged their performances. After Edward Murrich earned a high score with a dazzling waltz, Caloin Van Ning was called to the stage, leaving the audience staring at him in silence.

• Dean Gould welcomed the audience and introduced the Large-Scale Works Selection, with 22 contestants competing.
• Roberta Moum improvised a medieval-style polyphonic piece and received an average score of 16.5.
• Edward Murrich developed six notes into a passionate waltz with several modulations and earned 17.9 points.
• The staff called Caloin Van Ning, and the audience and professors turned their attention to him in stunned silence.

Fan Ning stunned the conservatory audience by improvising a virtuosic, structurally unified piano work based on the notes in his envelope. After the performance, his resonance reached 135/100, the key against his chest heated, and Dean Gould and Vice Dean Hutz began applauding in the silent auditorium.

• Fan Ning examined the six notes and began his performance with a sustained low G-sharp octave before launching into a rapid C-sharp minor piece modeled on Chopin's Fantasy Impromptu.
• Fan Ning's dazzling playing astonished the judges, who praised his musical ideas and technique despite some unstable fundamentals.
• Fan Ning shifted the piece into a contrasting D-flat major middle section, leaving Cecil frustrated as the audience and professors reassessed his performance.
• Fan Ning returned to the opening material and used the middle section's melody in the coda, drawing the audience into silence as his resonance climbed from 3/100 to 135/100.
• Fan Ning felt the key against his chest grow hot and his negative feelings vanish, then finished as Dean Gould and Vice Dean Hutz rose to applaud.

Fan Ning’s improvisation earned rapturous applause, an 18.8 score, and a promise from Vice Dean Hutz to include his work in the graduation concert selection. After naming it “Fantasy Impromptu,” Fan Ning returned to the competition as Cecil finished with a lower score and vowed to fight him for the premiere opportunity for “First Symphony.”

• The audience celebrated Fan Ning’s piano performance, and Dean Gould asked whether he had just composed the piece.
• Vice Dean Hutz praised the work as a Romantic masterpiece and promised to ensure it appeared at the graduation concert if Fan Ning submitted it.
• Fan Ning named the piece “Fantasy Impromptu” and received an average score of 18.8.
• Students asked Fan Ning for the score, and he promised to organize and share it after the remaining contestants had performed.
• Cecil scored 17.7 in the preliminary round, recalled his family’s role in undermining Fan Ning’s father’s art gallery, and resolved to compete for the premiere of “First Symphony.”

Fan Ning followed the key’s clue toward the Turner Art Gallery while investigating Teacher Anton’s warnings and the original owner’s strange dreams. He recognized The Remnant of the Musical Scale as harmonic skeletons from classical works in his previous life.

• Fan Ning left Saint Leniya University early and decided to investigate the key pointing toward the closed Turner Art Gallery.
• Fan Ning hired a carriage to East Mechelen District and reread Teacher Anton’s warning not to record or control dreams.
• Fan Ning compared Anton’s warning with the original owner’s notebook, which contained recurring dreams of a strange exhibition corridor and other surreal scenes.
• Fan Ning studied Anton’s handwritten copy of The Remnant of the Musical Scale and recognized its eleven sheets as harmonic skeletons from classical works in his previous life.

Fan Ning realized the eleven musical remnants encoded the original keys of eleven classical works, leaving C-sharp as the missing note. He went to the abandoned Turner Art Gallery to investigate and began searching its first-floor exhibition hall after noticing a faint smell of decay.

• Fan Ning noticed that the eleven musical remnants had been transposed into simple keys and identified C-sharp as the one note missing from the keys of the works they represented.
• After arriving at No. 115 Lunwan Avenue, Fan Ning took extra money, changed into an old windbreaker, and packed a candle and matches.
• Fan Ning walked to the Turner Art Gallery and unlocked its rusted gate and main entrance.
• Fan Ning lit a lantern inside the gallery and found the building dark, silent, and filled with the smell of rot, mold, and dust.
• Fan Ning detected a faint rotting odor, steadied himself, and started toward the first-floor traveling exhibition hall.

Fan Ning explored the abandoned gallery and found the corridor from his recurring dreams, where his father’s paintings led him to connect a work resembling “The Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” with the missing C-sharp Remnant. He ended the chapter by taking the painting off the wall.

• Fan Ning abandoned his search through the cluttered first-floor exhibition halls and climbed to the second floor.
• Fan Ning recognized the second-floor corridor as the one from his recurring dreams and walked toward its end.
• Fan Ning examined seven paintings, including his father’s “Air Currents and Warmth Over the Fields” and an unsigned work resembling Kuindzhi’s “The Moonlit Night on the Dnieper.”
• Fan Ning connected the moonlit painting to Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” and the missing C-sharp Remnant of the Musical Scale.
• Fan Ning set down his lantern and took “The Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” off the wall.

Fan Ning searched the art museum for the Remnant of the Musical Scale and realized someone may have taken it from a hidden compartment. He used the paintings’ sequence and a sunset-to-moonrise connection to move The Moonlit Night on the Dnieper into the second position, where a muffled rumble suddenly began.

• Fan Ning found an empty hidden compartment behind The Moonlit Night on the Dnieper and suspected someone had taken the Remnant of the Musical Scale.
• Fan Ning searched his father’s office and examined its paintings but found no clues.
• Fan Ning reasoned that the twelve paintings might correspond to the twelve notes in an octave, making the second position sharp C.
• Fan Ning connected the second painting’s sunset landscape to moonrise and hurried to retrieve The Moonlit Night on the Dnieper.
• Fan Ning hung The Moonlit Night on the Dnieper in the second position, and a continuous muffled rumble interrupted him.

Fan Ning discovered his father’s hidden work file and learned that he had served in the Special Events Inspection and Investigation Bureau and investigated an Anomaly Zone. He read a case file about the widespread Dream Man incident, then turned to the small brass box he had found.

• Fan Ning watched the office shelves rotate and uncovered a hidden shelf containing a thick folder and a brass box.
• Fan Ning read his father’s personnel file and learned that Vincent van Ning had risen to lead a patrol division and later joined an Anomaly Zone investigation team.
• Fan Ning wondered whether his father had adopted a new identity after the investigation, and feared that the force behind the missing Remnant of the Musical Scale might have found him.
• Fan Ning examined case files about mysterious incidents and read about the Dream Man, whose frightening face appeared in many people’s dreams and caused memory and psychological problems.
• Fan Ning put the documents back into the folder and examined the brass box.

Fan Ning deciphered the brass box’s combination and recovered an ancient papyrus bearing a mysterious symbol. After burning the gallery documents and leaving with a painting, he reached Leiteqi Street feeling that someone was following him.

• Fan Ning used the musical sequence from the Remnant of the Musical Scale to open the brass box and found a papyrus marked with four golden-yellow zigzag lines.
• Fan Ning tucked away the papyrus, reviewed what he had discovered, and failed to restore the gallery’s hidden compartment.
• Fan Ning burned the documents and case files, then carried an oil painting out of the art gallery as cover.
• Fan Ning locked the gallery and walked to Leiteqi Street, where he sensed that he was being followed.

Fan Ning, feeling watched and unsure whether the Special Inspection Office or another force was following him, went to the address Teacher Anton had given him for Lord Viadlin. He found the Woodpecker Inquiry Office above a restaurant, met Viadlin, and was asked whether he had eaten.

• Fan Ning weighed the dangers of going home, taking a carriage, or returning to school while the feeling of being followed persisted.
• Fan Ning remembered Teacher Anton’s letter and decided to visit Lord Viadlin at 43 Katzton Street.
• Fan Ning found the Woodpecker Inquiry Office above a small restaurant but could not find its entrance from the street.
• Fan Ning entered the restaurant, where the waitress said it had closed and a young man told him the inquiry office was closed too.
• Fan Ning introduced himself as Teacher Anton’s student, and Viadlin came down the hidden staircase after the sense of being watched faded.
• Viadlin scrutinized Fan Ning and asked whether he had eaten.

Fan Ning met Lord Viadlin to discuss Teacher Anton and the Knowers, learning about Anton’s dead daughter and her tragic fate. Viadlin prepared a ritual to protect their sanity before explaining Hidden Knowledge, leaving Fan Ning ready to hear more.

• Fan Ning shared a lavish dinner with Lord Viadlin, who said he had returned to Ufransel after hearing of Anton’s death and had been impressed by Fan Ning’s improvisation.
• Lord Viadlin told Fan Ning that Hiran had an older sister who worked as a clerical assistant after surviving a deadly incident involving an evil-god-worshipping secret organization.
• Lord Viadlin said Anton’s daughter later became Lost and died by an incomprehensible form of suicide, a painful memory Anton refused to discuss.
• Fan Ning questioned Lord Viadlin about Knowers, the Orthodox Churches, the Special Inspection Office, and what it meant to become Lost.
• Lord Viadlin lit candles, burned incense, scattered dyed salt, and played church music, explaining that the preparations protected their sanity while they discussed Hidden Knowledge.

Vyadlin explained to Fan Ning how Knowers used Hidden Knowledge and Inspiration to explore the Lords of Witnesses and the world’s underlying rules. He read from an ancient Noahic text describing the world’s origin and its layers, leaving Fan Ning with a new framework for understanding what it meant to become a Knower.

• Vyadlin told Fan Ning that Knowers called the mysterious beings worshiped by the churches Lords of Witnesses, and that more than twenty might exist.
• Vyadlin contrasted the schools’ study of the Lords of Witnesses with the churches’ worship and explained that both approaches could produce revelations.
• Vyadlin identified the Guidance School as his organization and introduced the Noah People’s theory of Radiance as an account of Inspiration.
• Vyadlin showed Fan Ning Ezekiel's Refraction Esoterica and asked him to describe his impressions of the world.
• Vyadlin read a Noahic account in which Radiance divided into seven Phases, giving rise to the Lords of Witnesses and the Migrant Surge beneath the world’s surface.
• Vyadlin told Fan Ning that Knowers used the sacred spark within their souls to explore the Migrant Surge and see the world’s more genuine colors.

Vyadlin explained how Knowers reached the Migrant Surge and guided Fan Ning through a brief Shared Dreaming to glimpse it. Fan Ning returned shaken but resolved that someone would eventually witness the Radiance.

• Fan Ning questioned Vyadlin about Knowers, the Migrant Surge, and the dangers of seeking Hidden Knowledge and Inspiration.
• Vyadlin explained the layers of flesh, soul, and spirit, and said a Knower entered the Migrant Surge by tearing through its boundary in a Clear Dream.
• Vyadlin used fragrances and Luminous Essence Elixir to guide Fan Ning into a Shared Dream and protect his Inspiration.
• Fan Ning became lucid in a dream, rose through the Astral Realm Layer, and briefly entered the Migrant Surge.
• Fan Ning saw drifting wastelands, colored Luminous Substance, a ring of mountains, the Radiance Tower, and a presence beyond it before his consciousness collapsed.
• After waking, Fan Ning recovered his sense of self and declared that someone would eventually witness the Radiance.

Vyadlin explained the Dream Control Method and how Inspiration allowed a person to become a Knower, then described the dangers of exploring the Migrant Surge. Fan Ning realized that a symbol left by his father was a Drift Waymarker.

• Vyadlin told Fan Ning that his dream control and three-second glimpse of the Migrant Surge showed his Inspiration was close to the level needed to become a Knower.
• Vyadlin outlined the Dream Control Method, from remembering and testing dreams to recognizing and controlling them.
• Vyadlin listed possible dangers that may have affected Anton, including harmful Hidden Knowledge and entering the Migrant Surge without a suitable waymarker.
• Vyadlin showed Fan Ning four Drift Waymarkers that Knowers used to guide their explorations and reduce risks in the Migrant Surge.
• Fan Ning recognized the waymarkers as similar to the Papyrus Symbol his father had left him and realized it was a Drift Waymarker.

Fan Ning learned how Drift Waymarkers worked and why his first Phase choice would shape his perception of the Migrant Surge and grant him a mysterious power. After weighing the options, he chose Candle.

• Vyadlin explained the four Drift Waymarkers, their symbols, and the Lords of Witnesses and Phases they represented.
• Fan Ning reached for the Undying Fire waymarker, then learned that waymarkers could be used again but that each use consumed one.
• Vyadlin explained that a Knower's first Phase determined their Light of First Acquaintance and brought a potentially random gift from the Radiance.
• Vyadlin described Knower ranks and said only a Deep Knower could gain another direct mysterious power.
• Fan Ning told Vyadlin that he chose Candle.