Recaps

Fors and Xio realized they still needed information about Lorne Dysenk, while Audrey worried that he had upset Susie. At the Evernight Church, Leonard learned that impostors disguised as Red Gloves were stirring up trouble between churches, and Pallez hinted at higher-level motives.

• Xio reproached Fors for failing to ask Lorne about his past, and they decided to keep Audrey uninformed until they learned more.
• Audrey tried to appease Susie and blamed Lorne for the dog’s continued sulking.
• Leonard encountered Mandated Punishers and Machinery Hivemind members arriving at the Evernight Church to confront its bishop.
• Soest told the Red Gloves that impostors disguised as their members had been operating in the East Borough, and ordered the team to hunt them down.
• Leonard asked Pallez who was behind the impersonations, but Pallez dismissed him as not being at that level and suggested someone was deliberately provoking conflict among churches.

Lorne obtained genuine Identity Documents under the name James Scott while Klein continued undercover work for the Truth Society. As a large Nighthawk sweep trapped Xio in a dead-end alley, an unknown figure intervened and greeted her.

• Lorne examined the genuine Identity Documents Miss Sharron had obtained and considered using James Scott for business and high-society dealings.
• Klein recalled the Truth Society's deceptive operations around Backlund and spoke with Charles, who worried that his report about Five of Clubs might bring retaliation.
• A Hellhound messenger delivered the Society's reply to Charles, saying they would investigate his report.
• Soest ordered the Nighthawks to search for Rogue Beyonders and the Red Gloves to secure a decisive strike with minimal casualties.
• Xio fled a Nighthawk squad after being mistaken for a suspect and was cornered in a dead-end alley.
• A Nighthawk suddenly froze as an amused voice greeted Xio: "Kind miss, we meet again."

Lorne rescued Xio during an official raid in the East Borough, while Klein’s attempt to help the Red Gloves steal from an Aurora Order warehouse led to a confrontation with Leonard’s Nighthawks. Klein escaped their Nightmare attack, but ran into Leonard as he fled.

• Lorne encountered Xio being cornered by a Nighthawk, freed her with Mental Storm, and fled with her.
• Klein joined Ilyin and the Red Gloves in transferring goods from an Aurora Order warehouse, then took watch on a rooftop.
• The crimson moonlight exposed Klein to Soest and Leonard, who organized an arrest.
• Leonard’s group used a Nightmare on Klein, but Klein resisted with a charm, fired an Earth Mother signal flare, and set nearby crates ablaze.
• Klein used Flaming Jump to escape the rooftop but encountered Leonard in the darkness.

Klein tried to escape Leonard after Leonard discovered him disguised as a Red Glove, while Lorne and Xio fled the Nighthawks’ chaotic clash. Lorne recognized Xio as a former exorcism client, but their conversation ended when he sensed an abnormal spiritual presence inside her home.

• Leonard confronted Klein, who escaped his gunshot with a Paper Figurine Substitute and fled using Flaming Jump.
• Charles restrained several Midnight Poets with Prohibition while Soest ordered the Nighthawks to surround them.
• Lorne and Xio escaped the converging Nighthawk squads by following Lorne’s spiritual intuition, which led them to Xio’s neighborhood.
• Lorne asked Xio about the evil spirit and revealed that he had accepted her exorcism commission; Xio recognized him.
• Lorne asked Xio for her name, then sensed an abnormal spiritual reaction inside a nearby house, which Xio realized was her home.

During Fors’s full-moon loss of control, Lorne tried to save her and was caught in the dangerous whispers corrupting her spirit. He vanished into a playing card to break contact with the whispers, then reappeared and collapsed after vomiting a transparent worm.

• Lorne sensed danger in Fors and Xio’s house, and Xio rushed inside to find Fors suffering from the full moon’s whispers.
• Xio begged Lorne to save Fors, but his Sun-domain purification charm worsened her pain, and he realized her spirit was being strangely corroded.
• Lorne used his Monocle to investigate and heard the whispers, which briefly eased Fors’s condition but threatened to endanger everyone nearby.
• Lorne vanished into the Three of Diamonds playing card, and Fors’s whispers receded enough for her to recover.
• Xio picked up the card, causing Lorne to reappear, and he collapsed after coughing up a transparent, ringed worm.

After Lorne rescued Fors from losing control, he fainted when a strange mystical configuration struck him. He woke at Xio and Fors’s home, where he asked about Fors’s condition and discovered she had never heard of potion digestion.

• Xio and Fors checked Lorne after he collapsed, moved him to a sofa, and Fors admitted her condition had been troubling her for a while.
• Klein fought Leonard in Backlund, but vanished when a bronze hand appeared and grasped his arm as Crestet Cesimir arrived.
• Lorne woke at Xio and Fors’s home and learned how the Monocle, disguise Cufflink, angelic murmurs, and Fors’s prayers had combined to affect him.
• Fors teased Xio about her concern for Lorne, and Lorne joined in before asking for his belongings and checking his cracked Monocle.
• Lorne asked Fors when she had advanced and whether she had finished digesting her potion, but Fors and Xio did not understand what digestion meant.

Lorne learned that Fors and Xio did not know the acting method and explained how potion digestion worked. He teased Xio into giving her name, then reminded her that she had promised to do anything if he helped Fors.

• Lorne asked Fors how long she had been hearing the full moon language, and she blamed the symptoms on a Mystical Item's side effect.
• Fors asked Lorne what digestion meant, and he said he would explain the priceless information if Xio told him her name.
• After blushing and hesitating, Xio introduced herself as Xio Derecha.
• Lorne explained the acting method by reciting that a potion's name was the key to digestion, leaving Fors and Xio deeply moved by the revelation.
• Lorne reminded Xio of her promise to do anything if he helped Fors, and Xio bashfully said she would not go back on her word.

Lorne’s practical offer of future help led Xio to mistakenly think he was romantically interested in her, while Fors watched the misunderstanding as inspiration for a story. After Lorne accidentally implied he knew about Fors’s pen friend, he redirected the conversation to preventing the dangers of the full moon language.

• Fors tried to take responsibility for Lorne’s request, but Lorne reminded Xio that she had promised to help him.
• Xio imagined that Lorne’s request might be a romantic overture, and Lorne realized his words had sounded like flirting.
• Fors silently relished the misunderstanding as inspiration for a romance story, then mourned the broken fountain pen she considered a token of love.
• Xio tried to comfort Fors about the pen, and Lorne’s comment that her pen friend would not mind its damage made Fors suspicious.
• Lorne offered to find repair specialists and then changed the subject to discussing how to prevent the full moon language from causing harm.

Klein reunited with Azik, who explained that he had only happened to pass by, while Lorne investigated a mysterious worm and prepared to pursue new leads. Klein reported his escape to the Truth Society, only to learn that his next assignment would involve impersonating a different Church.

• Klein met Azik in the Spirit World, explained how he had been forced to join the Society, and learned that Azik had come across him by chance.
• Lorne examined his damaged Monocle and the worm he had spat out, photographed the worm, and wrote to Edwina, Cattleya, and Danitz for help and information.
• Lorne filed a patent application for his shotgun design, then read that the Royal Museum would host an exhibition of Emperor Roselle's personal effects.
• Klein told Five of Clubs that he had escaped the Nighthawks by jumping into the Tussock River, and learned that Ilyin and Charles had only suffered minor injuries.
• Five of Clubs said the Society would stop impersonating the Church of Evernight and ordered Klein to wear the Church of Storms' clothes instead.

Klein received a reward and a new assignment from Five of Clubs, while Lorne investigated the struggling Logot Firearms Factory and met the starving Old Kohler. Lorne left for the factory with Old Kohler as his guide, reflecting on why Beyonder powers had not been used to improve ordinary people's lives.

• Five of Clubs gave Klein an envelope containing a thousand pounds and Gift Redemption Vouchers worth three hundred pounds after he escaped Crestet Cesimir.
• Five of Clubs explained why the Society used the Church of the Earth Mother's symbol on its signal flares and told Klein to pose as a rich man for Charles's economics and stocks task.
• Five of Clubs told Klein that a complaint from the short girl who hired him had temporarily lowered his detective rating and barred him from taking commissions.
• Lorne inspected his investments and chose to investigate the Logot Firearms Factory, where Old Kohler told him the factory required skilled weapons craftsmen and had recently laid off workers.
• Lorne bought Old Kohler a meal, paid him to accompany him to the factory, and learned that an epidemic had cost Old Kohler his family, job, savings, and home.
• As they walked to the factory, Lorne wondered why churches, authorities, and secret organizations had not used Beyonder powers to improve people's lives.

Lorne and Old Kohler visited the struggling Logget Mechanical Factory to assess its condition and discuss buying it. After inspecting the primitive workshop and a warehouse full of unsold bullets, Lorne asked owner Ted how much he wanted for the factory.

• Lorne and Old Kohler arrived at the factory and found workers demanding two months of unpaid wages.
• Lorne introduced himself to Ted as James Scott, the prospective buyer, and heard that the factory had lost most of its workers and could not sell its stockpile of bullets.
• Ted led Lorne and Old Kohler through a concealed exit to inspect the factory’s rudimentary, mostly manually operated machinery.
• Lorne examined the brass bullets stacked in the warehouse and asked Ted how much he wanted for the factory.

Lorne negotiated to buy Ted’s arms factory for 7,000 pounds and signed the contract after confirming it held no traps. After learning Ted planned to pay the overdue wages, Lorne asked whether he would stay on as the factory’s manager.

• Ted offered to sell his remaining eighty-percent stake in the factory, and Lorne assessed its value and liabilities.
• Lorne argued that the factory’s condition and the weak market justified his offer of 7,000 pounds, and Ted reluctantly accepted.
• Lorne checked the contract with a coin divination, then offered Ted a 1,500-pound down payment and signed the agreement.
• Ted counted the banknotes, signed the contract, and said he wanted to pay the workers two months of overdue wages.
• Lorne asked Ted whether he would stay on as the factory’s manager.

Lorne hired Ted to manage the factory and planned to modernize production while testing the market for a lever-action firearm. He also hired Old Kohler as a watchman and trusted informant, leaving him with Ted to arrange the details.

• Lorne offered Ted the factory manager position, and Ted gladly accepted.
• Ted estimated that a mechanized production line would cost at least five thousand pounds and praised Lorne's lever-action firearm design.
• Lorne ordered a small trial batch, reduced other firearm production, and said he would seek new sales channels.
• Lorne asked whether the factory needed a gate guard, then offered Old Kohler the watchman job.
• Lorne told Old Kohler to monitor the factory and report accurate information about its management, workers, and operations.

Danitz celebrated his bounty and bought three buildings in Bayam despite Brando’s advice to prioritize advancement. Meanwhile, Cattleya received an academic letter from Brando, wondered about his closeness with Edwina, and was confronted by a mysterious Queen in her cabin.

• Danitz celebrated receiving 8,200 pounds from the bounty claims and fantasized about returning home rich.
• Danitz bought three buildings in central Bayam for 4,500 pounds, despite remembering Brando’s advice against investing too much in property.
• Edwina gave Danitz a letter from Brando and said Brando had consulted her about an academic question.
• Nina speculated that Cattleya had changed since returning from Bayam, while Cattleya opened Brando’s letter about the Full Moon Language and a strange worm.
• Cattleya wondered whether Brando had sent Edwina the same letter, then sensed someone appear behind her and recognized the figure as the Queen.

Lorne inspected a new shotgun, considered expanding his factory’s sales, and thought about inviting Fors to an exhibition and visiting Councilman Macht. Meanwhile, Bernadette visited Cattleya to investigate Monkey Brando, whose connection to Cattleya became apparent when Bernadette revealed that Tracy had put a bounty on him for playing with her affections.

• Lorne examined a factory-made Lever-Action Shotgun and reflected on the factory’s improved operations and workers’ higher wages.
• Lorne considered inviting Fors to the Roselle Memorial Exhibition and visiting Councilman Macht to open new sales channels.
• Bernadette arrived aboard the Future and told Cattleya that a prophecy had led her to clues about a target connected to the ship.
• Bernadette named Monkey Brando as her target, and Cattleya recognized him as the adventurer who had protected her from Seniors.
• Bernadette said Tracy had placed a ten-thousand-pound bounty on Brando because he had toyed with the Vice Admiral of Ailment’s affections, shocking Cattleya.

Bernadette told Cattleya the rumors that Tracy had loved Brando and that he might have betrayed her, but Cattleya defended him and explained how they had met. After examining Brando’s letter, Bernadette connected its clues to the Abraham Family and decided to visit Backlund.

• Bernadette told Cattleya that Tracy had offered a ten-thousand-pound bounty for Brando and had broken down when she saw what she believed was his corpse.
• Cattleya angrily rejected Alger’s claim that Brando had manipulated Tracy and fled, then recounted her own history with Brando to Bernadette.
• Bernadette suggested that Tracy might have loved Brando without his returning her feelings, while Cattleya worried that the rumors would damage his reputation.
• Bernadette examined Brando’s letter, identified its description as a Worm of Time, and linked the full moon ravings to the Abraham Family.
• Bernadette learned that Brando was in Backlund and decided to visit during the upcoming Roselle memorial exhibition.

Hazel Macht stayed in her room for a week, distressed over her theft, her missing teacher, and James Scott’s leverage over her. When James visited her home and spoke cordially with her mother, Hazel rushed downstairs and demanded to know why he was there.

• Liana Macht worried about Hazel’s isolation and learned that a young gentleman claiming to be her friend had arrived.
• Hazel panicked when she learned James Scott was visiting and feared he would expose her to her family.
• James introduced himself to Liana as Hazel’s friend from a school Mass and ingratiated himself by praising Councilman Macht.
• Hazel rushed into the sitting room in her nightdress and confronted James, who said he had come to see her.

Lorne visited Hazel Macht and persuaded her to invest in his firearms factory and help him approach her father, Councilman Macht, despite her suspicion that he was there to blackmail her. The pair left Liana wondering whether Hazel and Lorne were really just ordinary friends.

• Hazel was mortified when she encountered Lorne in her nightdress, then changed and agreed to speak with him privately.
• Hazel took Lorne to a small reception room, where he teased her before explaining that he had come to seek Councilman Macht’s help with his firearms factory.
• Lorne warned Hazel that he could use the photographs of her to pressure her father, then argued that investing would give her influence and protect her interests.
• Hazel agreed to invest one or two thousand pounds and said she would try to discuss the venture with her father, though she could not promise he would help.
• Lorne left after reminding Hazel that they had met at Mass, and Liana asked him whether he and Hazel were only ordinary friends.

Liana Macht suspected that Hazel and Lorne were more than ordinary friends and feared Hazel might be pregnant, while Hazel only wanted an advance on her allowance. Lorne left amused and planned to attend a Beyonder gathering and handle business for the Firearms Factory.

• Liana Macht recalled Hazel’s recent distress and her attempts to sneak out at night, and concluded that Hazel might have fallen for Lorne or become pregnant.
• Liana rushed into Hazel’s room, but when Hazel asked for a year’s allowance in advance, Liana misunderstood and began dragging her to the hospital.
• Lorne arranged to visit Hazel again another day and reflected that acting as James Scott made him feel more relaxed than being Lorne Dysenk.
• Lorne planned to attend a Beyonder gathering to seek potion ingredients and later write to the Captain and the others about weapon sales and the factory’s finances.

Klein helped the Society manipulate Backlund’s stock market by posing as the investment savant Rustig, then learned his next assignment would use a fake mining company to draw in nobles and politicians. Elsewhere, a mysterious man appeared in a wasteland and wished a valuable gold mine into existence.

• Klein, disguised as Rustig, recommended stocks to wealthy merchants, who made large profits as the Society manipulated prices.
• Charles told Klein to rest before promoting a new mining company that would supposedly have discovered a vast gold deposit in the Southern Continent.
• Klein worried that the scheme would ruin investors and be exposed, but Charles and Ilyin dismissed his concerns.
• Klein noticed a newspaper article about the Roselle Memorial Exhibition.
• A mysterious man appeared in a wasteland and wished for a fabulously valuable gold mine to exist there.

Lorne took Xio to his firearms factory, asked her to help protect it from gang trouble, and paid to have an ill worker taken to the hospital. Afterward, he and Xio shared a quiet stop at a coffee shop, where a boy holding tarot cards watched him.

• Lorne met Xio at a café in the East Borough and brought her to the Logget Mechanical Factory to introduce her to Old Kohler.
• Lorne asked Xio to help if gangs threatened the factory, and she assured Old Kohler she could handle them herself.
• John collapsed at work with severe illness, and Lorne paid for his hospital care while Xio found a carriage.
• Lorne and Xio left the hospital together, and Xio said she liked being called by her name.
• Lorne treated Xio to tea and ice cream at a street-side coffee shop, where a boy holding tarot cards stared at him.

Lorne and Xio met Will, a sick boy who read their tarot cards before a doctor took him back to the hospital. After finding a paper crane beneath his ice cream bowl, Lorne left, while Will drew the Wheel of Fortune and feared Lorne might be connected to a powerful being.

• Lorne offered ice cream to Will, who cautiously accepted a few bites and asked whether Lorne and Xio were a couple.
• Will read Lorne the Tower card and warned him that he might have bad luck soon, then told Xio the High Priestess card foretold new feelings.
• Doctor Aaron Ceres arrived and took Will back to the hospital, while Lorne felt a strange urge to swallow the boy.
• Lorne found a brightly colored paper crane beneath his ice cream bowl and left with Xio.
• Back in his hospital ward, Will drew the Wheel of Fortune and wondered whether Lorne was the stupid snake's blessed one before recoiling from another possibility.

Hazel tried to convince her mother that nothing had happened between her and James Scott, while Xio told Fors about her day with him. The chapter ended with Fors wondering whether James Scott was strange and with no solution yet to the Full Moon Ravings.

• Hazel denied having a relationship with James Scott, but agreed to a doctor’s examination in exchange for a year’s allowance in advance.
• Councilman Mori Macht learned of Liana’s suspicions and decided he would visit James Scott, while Hazel planned to discuss investing in a business with her father.
• Xio returned home late and told Fors she had met James Scott, taken workers to the hospital, and visited his Firearms Factory.
• Fors showed Xio a ticket to Emperor Roselle’s Memorial Exhibition that Lorne had sent her, and Xio declined to join her.
• Xio said James Scott still had no solution to the Full Moon Ravings, and Fors asked whether Xio thought he was strange.

At the Tarot Club, Klein sought information about fate-related pathways and warned Audrey that Lorne Dysenk was dangerous. He also cautioned her about a looming stock market problem, while the members discussed major developments among pirates.

• Klein asked the Tarot Club for information about a pathway related to fate, and Derrick offered to search the City of Silver's library in exchange for information about the True Creator.
• Alger reported that Admiral of Blood Seniors had been killed by a supposedly unknown bounty hunter and that Vice Admiral of Ailment Tracy had fought Vice Admiral Iceberg Edwina Edwards near the Berserk Sea.
• Klein privately told Audrey to stop investigating Lorne Dysenk, and Audrey recounted Susie's encounter with him.
• Klein warned Audrey that Crand's stock prices were rising too quickly and urged her to investigate the market; Audrey planned to consult her father.

Lorne visited the Roselle exhibition with Fors, hoping to honor a fellow Transmigrator and learn about the nobility. After Fors questioned his unusually calm reaction to her breaking his fountain pen, a veiled woman watched them and remarked on rumors about Monkey Brando.

• Lorne met the dressed-up Fors outside the Royal Museum and accompanied her into the Roselle exhibition.
• Lorne and Fors viewed Roselle's gold-edged flush toilet, while Fors eagerly took notes about his extravagant lifestyle.
• Lorne read Roselle's diary entries and heard the guide romanticize them as secret messages between lovers.
• Fors apologized for breaking Lorne's fountain pen, and Lorne reassured her while concealing his surprise at hearing the news.
• A veiled woman observed Lorne and Fors and commented that rumors about Monkey Brando being a womanizer seemed true.