Chapter Summaries

Hazel sought help from her Gray-White Rat teacher after James Scott blackmailed her, but the Monocle she had stolen triggered a terrifying reaction. Meanwhile, Five of Clubs assigned Klein to wear a conspicuous Church of Evernight outfit during a Truth Society operation before abruptly leaving Charles to coordinate with him.

• Hazel told her Gray-White Rat teacher that James Scott had found her after she stole a gift and threatened her with indecent photographs.
• Hazel showed the rat the stolen fountain pen and then a Monocle, which made the rat scream that it was a trap.
• A chaotic surge of spirituality overwhelmed Hazel, and she lost consciousness.
• Five of Clubs gave Klein a black coat bearing the Evernight Holy Emblem and red gloves, telling him to keep watch during an operation to help digest his Magician potion.
• Five of Clubs sensed something interesting in Backlund, left abruptly, and told Charles to coordinate with Klein.
• Charles said he would report Five of Clubs to the higher-ups because the Society's management was falling apart.

Hazel arrived late to return the stolen gift, and Lorne pressured her into agreeing to help him in exchange for keeping her theft secret. After recovering the gift, Lorne returned to the inn and learned that his bodyguard’s name was Sharron.

• Hazel awoke after midnight, feared the scandal her absence could cause, and rushed out with the stolen gift and crystal Monocle.
• Five of Clubs met Two of Clubs, claimed he was investigating an Amon avatar, and was ordered to follow him to East Borough.
• While waiting for Hazel, Lorne explained to Sharron that leverage over a politician could protect them from authorities and offered to share the benefit with her.
• Hazel arrived late, and Lorne demanded the gift back, using the threat of telling her father or the police to make her surrender it.
• Lorne offered to keep Hazel’s secret in exchange for her help with unspecified future tasks, and she agreed on the condition that nothing was illegal and her parents were not told.
• Lorne returned to the inn with the recovered gift, and Sharron told him her name.

Lorne arranged further help from Sharron and planned his next steps before meeting his pen friend. Meanwhile, Fors pressed Xio about her recent strange behavior, but Xio kept the werewolf attack secret.

• Lorne asked Sharron to find identity documents for James Scott, locate an Artisan, and seek information about restoring a Mystical Item to its original Beyonder characteristic.
• After Sharron left, Lorne planned to visit Fors, apply for a firearm patent, and seek arms sales connections through Mori Macht.
• Fors struggled to finish her overdue manuscript and told Xio that she was worried about finding her pen friend and keeping the matter from Miss Audrey.
• Fors questioned Xio about acting strangely since she came home injured, but Xio denied hiding anything and left without revealing the werewolf attack.

Lorne went to meet his pen friend, Fors Wall, but their reunion began disastrously when he found her exhausted, disheveled, and smoking. Fors shut the door on him to get ready, while Xio stepped in to help her prepare.

• Lorne traveled to the address Fors had given him and knocked on her door.
• Fors, who had stayed up all night writing, opened the door and recognized Lorne as her pen friend.
• Lorne recognized Fors from a previous encounter and politely asked whether he could see Miss Fors Wall.
• Fors accidentally blew smoke in Lorne's face, apologized, and slammed the door in embarrassment.
• Fors panicked over her appearance and blamed Xio, who ordered her to get cleaned up and resolved to stay by her side.

Lorne visited Fors Wall and Xio Derecha, apologized for his silence, and gave Fors a valuable fountain pen. After learning Xio might have hidden reasons for questioning him, Lorne considered approaching her again as James Scott.

• Xio let Lorne into the house, where he met Fors after she had changed into a refined dress.
• Lorne apologized for not answering Fors's letters and gave her a sapphire-set fountain pen, which Xio later estimated was worth at least five hundred pounds.
• Fors borrowed Lorne's Death Notebook premise for her novel, and the three discussed Sherlock Moriarty's unauthorized break-in and agreed to complain about him.
• Lorne returned the money Fors had lent him and left, while Fors wondered whether his expensive gift signaled romantic interest and Xio reminded her to report the matter to Audrey.
• On his way home, Lorne suspected Xio had a reason for probing his background and planned to approach her as James Scott.

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.