Chapter Summaries

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.