Chapter Summaries

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.

Klein visited the Roselle Memorial Exhibition and suspected a bookmark might conceal a Card of Blasphemy, then unexpectedly encountered Lorne and his pen friend Fors. Their awkward reunion was interrupted by Five of Clubs, who teased Lorne for being with a different woman.

• Klein noticed an unusual bookmark in the display of Roselle's study and asked the guide whether it was the only one that needed checking.
• Klein contacted Miss Justice for help, then bumped into Lorne and recognized Fors as someone who had once prayed to him.
• Lorne introduced Fors as his pen friend, and Klein teased them about being on a date until Fors shyly agreed that it probably counted.
• Bernadette noticed Klein's arrival and postponed approaching Lorne, while the group returned to the first exhibition hall.
• Five of Clubs appeared by the Golden Toilet, scrutinized Fors, and joked that Lorne had switched to another lady again.

After a playful dinner with Fors, Lorne was confronted by Bernadette, who recognized him as Monkey Brando and delivered a letter from Cattleya. The chapter ended with Lorne suspecting that Cattleya had betrayed him.

• Lorne and Fors shared dinner, where Fors teased him and called their outing a date before leaving in a carriage.
• Lorne recalled Sherlock and Five of Clubs making Fors suspicious of him, then wondered whether Will's prediction of bad luck was coming true.
• Lorne entered a deserted alley and sensed that a Beyonder was targeting him, so he prepared a charm and necklace.
• Bernadette confronted Lorne with a bounty notice and revealed that she recognized him as Monkey Brando.
• Bernadette gave Lorne a letter from Cattleya, and Lorne asked whether Cattleya had sold him out.

Lorne confronted Bernadette after learning that Cattleya had revealed his location, but Bernadette said she had not come to harm him. She showed him Roselle’s diary pages and accused him of writing them, then revealed that she could not divine anything about him, leaving Lorne intrigued by his unusual resistance to detection.

• Lorne suspected Cattleya had betrayed him and asked Bernadette whether she was seeking the bounty or revenge.
• Bernadette identified herself as Queen Mystic and told Lorne she had not come to hurt him.
• Bernadette summoned pages of Roselle’s diary and asked Lorne whether he had written them.
• Lorne admitted selling the pages but claimed he had bought them elsewhere, then tried to explain that he had guessed they were a diary.
• Bernadette called Lorne a liar and said his evasive reactions exposed his guilt.
• Bernadette revealed that she could not make prophecies about Lorne, and he realized his unusual quality might block detection.

Lorne negotiated with Bernadette over Roselle’s secrets and a long-term arrangement to translate his diary, while protecting his own dangerous secret. Bernadette left with his pendant to restore it, but learned that her approach had made Lorne believe Cattleya had sold him out.

• Lorne asked Bernadette whether Roselle was truly dead, then demanded to know what she wanted from him.
• Bernadette offered Lorne the Fate pathway’s subsequent potion formulas and its Card of Blasphemy in exchange for everything he knew about Roselle.
• Lorne warned that revealing his secret could destroy them both and proposed translating Roselle’s Diary through his channels in exchange for payment based on the entries’ value.
• Bernadette agreed to their arrangement and offered to restore Lorne’s Winner pendant to a Beyonder characteristic as a welcoming gift.
• Bernadette said Cattleya had not sold Lorne out, but Lorne argued that exposing his location without asking his consent amounted to betrayal.
• Bernadette realized her actions had damaged Lorne’s opinion of Cattleya and wondered whether she had made a mistake.

Lorne’s tense conversation with Bernadette was interrupted by Five of Clubs, whose teasing worsened their awkward misunderstanding before he warned that the Machinery Hivemind was approaching. As Lorne walked home, he sensed danger and heard someone scream that there had been a murder.

• At the Royal Museum, the Machinery Hivemind discovered that the Golden Toilet had disappeared while searching for an intruder.
• Bernadette struggled to explain to Lorne how her actions had harmed him, but Five of Clubs entered her spell and interrupted them.
• Lorne introduced Five of Clubs as an acquaintance, and Five of Clubs teased him about his relationships before warning that the Machinery Hivemind was on its way.
• Five of Clubs vanished, leaving Bernadette more suspicious of Lorne and their conversation more awkward.
• As Lorne walked home, he sensed nearby danger and heard screams of “Murder!” and “Help!”

After stealing the disguised Card of Blasphemy from the Museum, Klein encountered Lorne while fleeing a Devil Dog, and Lorne escaped with him before returning home. Lorne fed Lucky the potion that made her an Instigator Cat, while the Five of Clubs worried that Backlund was nearing another crisis.

• Klein stole the disguised Card of Blasphemy from the Museum, then fled after encountering a Devil Dog at a murder scene.
• Klein and Lorne ran into each other in an alley and escaped the Devil Dog by fleeing through several streets.
• Lorne met Lucky on Rose Street and took her back to No. 69, where he prepared her advancement potion.
• Lucky drank the potion and became an Instigator Cat.
• The Five of Clubs reflected on the aura he had sensed at the Museum and warned that Backlund was about to descend into chaos again.

Lorne learned that the Worm of Time was tied to the Marauder pathway and that Fors’s Full Moon Muttering was connected to the Abraham Family, while he resisted investing in stocks. Danitz became tempted by Backlund’s market gains, and Lucky set out to test her new Instigator abilities.

• Lucky awakened after advancing, but Lorne could not determine what new ability she had gained before she fell asleep.
• Lorne read Cattleya’s letter, connected Hazel to the Marauder pathway, and learned that Fors’s Full Moon Muttering was linked to the Abraham Family.
• Lorne decided not to risk his money in the stock market and noticed a report about a Devil reappearing in Backlund.
• Danitz brooded over the Golden Dream’s setback and the crew’s resentment before asking Iron Skin about a relative in Backlund, hoping to invest in stocks.
• After Lorne left to visit a Beyonder gathering and Fors, Lucky sneaked out to test her Instigator abilities and spotted a cheerful Golden-Haired Big Dog.

Hazel persuaded Councilman Macht to help James Scott with his firearms business, though he insisted on meeting James first. Councilman Macht revealed that the family’s funds were tied up in a secret investment in a Southern Continent gold mine, leaving Hazel intrigued by the opportunity.

• Susie heard a cat call to her from a treetop and spotted an orange cat watching her.
• Liana remained suspicious that Hazel’s relationship with James Scott was more than friendship, despite the doctor’s examination clearing up one misunderstanding.
• Hazel asked Councilman Macht to help James Scott, and he agreed to hear the young man out in person but said he would not invest family money.
• Councilman Macht explained that he and several friends were buying shares in a mining company after John verified its discovery of a vast gold deposit on the Southern Continent.

Lorne told Fors that her Full Moon Muttering might be tied to the Abraham Family’s curse, but her trail to the family had run cold. Meanwhile, Audrey discovered Earl Hall was lying about the booming stock market, and Susie brought Lucky to her palatial home.

• Fors recalled that Mrs. Anlisa had warned her about a curse affecting the Abraham Family, but she had no contacts among Anlisa’s relatives or friends.
• Lorne promised to keep looking for information and tried to reassure Fors, who asked whether he was helping her only because of Xio.
• Audrey asked Earl Hall about the rising stock market and sensed that he was lying when he called the surge a normal fluctuation.
• Earl Hall planned to profit from the stock boom by lending money to investors and arranging for Hibbert to gain political influence when the market crisis came.
• Susie showed Lucky her luxurious home, leaving Lucky envious of the dog’s grand residence.

Audrey’s new cat guest, Lucky, helped Susie turn a careless remark into a quarrel with Audrey. Susie returned after several hours and demanded double portions of food, while Lucky watched from the shadows after inspecting the Hall Family’s kitchen.

• Audrey met Lucky, the orange cat Susie had brought home, and suspected she was no ordinary stray.
• Lucky dodged Audrey’s attempt to pet her and acted frightened, prompting Susie to defend her friend.
• Audrey called Susie her pet while insisting Lucky leave, and Susie became hurt and went out with Lucky.
• Audrey worried when Susie stayed away for several hours, then welcomed her back and apologized.
• Susie refused to forgive Audrey unless she received double portions of food every day, while the invisible Lucky watched nearby.