Chapter Summaries

Lorne worried that Fors was upset with him, reviewed the Firearms Factory’s rising costs, and woke from a strange dream of a silvery-white snake. He visited Councilman Macht to discuss his business, but the meeting ended with Macht confronting him about making Hazel cry.

• Lorne fretted over Fors’s reaction and considered suspending Firearms Factory production because raw material prices had surged.
• Lucky returned from a noble’s home, where she had overeaten and resolved to look out for the innocent golden-haired dog.
• Lorne woke from a dream about a strange silvery-white snake, then prepared a prototype, business plan, financial statements, and wine for his visit to Councilman Macht.
• Lorne introduced himself as James Scott and answered Councilman Macht’s questions about his background, business, and faith.
• Councilman Macht praised Lorne as a promising young man, then accused him of making Hazel cry.

Lorne visited Councilman Macht to ask for help, but Macht mistakenly believed Lorne was romantically involved with Hazel and refusing to take responsibility. Hazel interrupted and took Lorne aside, where he tried to clear up the misunderstanding and revealed he knew she was a Marauder.

• Councilman Macht accused Lorne of making Hazel cry and confronted him about their supposed relationship, believing they had secretly been dating.
• Lorne denied that he and Hazel were anything more than friends, but Macht refused to believe him.
• Hazel entered the study, realized her father had misunderstood, and led Lorne to another room.
• Lorne asked Hazel what she had told her father and confirmed she had asked him to help Lorne.
• Lorne urged Hazel to clarify their relationship with her father to protect his reputation, then called her a Marauder and startled her.
• Lorne and Hazel prepared to return to Macht to settle the matter, while Lorne considered how easily Hazel's emotions showed.

After Councilman Macht dismissed Lorne’s Lever-Action Shotgun as unsuitable for the army, Lorne began developing submachine gun prototypes at the Logot Firearms Factory. Seeing the full moon and worrying about Fors, he abandoned his plans to go home and headed to check on her.

• Lorne learned that Councilman Macht would help find buyers for his shotgun, though the home army was unlikely to purchase it and colonial guards might order only a small number.
• Lorne considered designing weapons for military use and chose to build prototypes of a Thompson and a low-cost Sten submachine gun.
• Lorne worked at the factory until evening, making rough progress on a prototype before exhaustion drove him to seek a hackney carriage.
• Lorne noticed the full moon and feared Fors might be suffering from her Full Moon Muttering.
• Lorne decided to visit Fors and make sure she was safe, despite telling himself he should stop accommodating her.

Klein answered Fors’s desperate plea through the gray fog and tried to shield her from whispers as she neared losing control. Lorne found Fors unconscious, and she broke down in his arms after waking, just as Xio arrived and saw them together.

• Klein noticed Fors’s prayer-star Above the Gray Fog and heard her pleading for help while she showed signs of losing control.
• Lorne arrived at Fors’s apartment, entered through an open window, and found her unconscious amid a wrecked living room.
• Lorne confirmed Fors was breathing, carried her to the sofa, and watched her wake.
• Fors clung to Lorne and sobbed that he had come too late, while he stood unsure how to comfort her.
• Xio returned home and found Fors in Lorne’s arms, then asked what the two of them were doing.

After Lorne rescued Fors from a frightening encounter with a Hidden Being, Xio mistook their disheveled scene for something romantic before Fors explained what happened. Fors suspected Lorne might be connected to the Fool’s warning, but chose not to reveal her suspicions and vowed to protect him.

• Xio arrived to find Fors crying in Lorne’s arms amid a room full of scattered books and overturned furniture, then fled after misreading the scene.
• Fors caught up with Xio and explained that she had been frightened, while Lorne claimed he had found her unconscious after breaking in to check on her.
• Lorne and Fors left together, and he asked whether she had anything she wanted to ask him before telling her to stay alive.
• Fors remembered the Fool’s warning not to reveal the gathering and wondered whether Lorne Dysenk was connected to James Scott.
• Fors decided she could not treat her suspicion as a confirmed fact and vowed to protect Lorne.

Lorne returned home exhausted, but Sharron soon appeared and asked him to help her confront a Sequence 5 Wraith from the Indulgence Faction. When Lorne asked for money as payment, Sharron admitted she was too poor to offer much and asked him to request something else.

• Lorne returned to 69 Rose Street, changed back from his disguise, and reflected on the women he had met.
• Lucky woke when Lorne disturbed her, then fell asleep again before dawn.
• Sharron appeared in Lorne’s room and asked for his help against the Indulgence Faction.
• Sharron explained that she and Maric had drawn the operation’s high-sequence leader away, leaving a Sequence 5 Wraith with a Sealed Artifact as their main threat.
• Lorne agreed to consider helping and asked for money, but Sharron revealed that she and Maric were poor and asked him to request another form of payment.

Lorne agreed to help Sharron and Maric confront a team carrying the Scarlet Lunar Corona, which strengthened their enemies and weakened the Temperance Faction. In exchange, Sharron would teach him mysticism after the cooperation, while Lorne hoped to study the artifact for a friend’s full-moon problem.

• Sharron explained that the Scarlet Lunar Corona could create full-moon conditions, weakening her and Maric while empowering the Indulgence Faction team, which included a Wraith, a Zombie, and a Werewolf.
• Lorne agreed to help Sharron, but she refused to give up the Corona and offered the Werewolf and Zombie Beyonder Characteristics as payment.
• Lorne offered Maric a Wraith Beyonder Characteristic, but Sharron said Maric lacked time to complete the advancement ritual.
• Lorne proposed borrowing the Corona to study and asked Sharron to teach him mysticism knowledge after their cooperation; Sharron accepted.
• Lorne called her Teacher Sharron, and Sharron vanished after asking him to return to his usual tone.

Lorne learned that Backlund’s stock-market frenzy had disrupted the factory’s sales, while Ted admitted he had mortgaged his house to speculate. As Lorne prepared holy-water-treated bullets for an upcoming hunt, Klein urged Charles to end the Continental United Mining Company stock scheme early, but Charles refused.

• Lorne questioned Ted about the factory’s faltering sales, and Ted explained that wholesalers had sold their businesses to invest in stocks.
• Lorne discovered that Ted had mortgaged his house to speculate in the stock market and worried that the international boom could end in a depression.
• Lorne made holy water with a Sun-rune charm and soaked bullet heads in it to prepare purifying bullets for the hunt for Beyonders of the Indulgence Faction.
• Charles praised the success of the Society’s scheme to inflate Continental United Mining Company shares and promised Klein a possible promotion.
• Klein asked Charles to end the scheme early because its funds were running low, but Charles insisted that it continue as planned.
• Ilyin warned Klein that his sense of justice could cost him dearly.

After failing to trade for useful resources at Backlund’s Beyonder gatherings, Lorne received a summons to meet Maric and Sharron for their planned operation. As they traveled toward the ambush site, he asked Sharron to stop appearing in his room like a ghost.

• Lorne visited several Backlund Beyonder gatherings but failed to buy or sell anything useful, and considered trying Mr. A’s gathering.
• Lorne found a letter directing him to meet at the back entrance of the Bravehearts Bar at ten that night.
• Mrs. Griffin warned Lorne that a powerful ghost might be haunting the house and feeding on young people’s souls.
• Lorne met Maric at the Bravehearts Bar and rode with him in an unmarked carriage to join Sharron.
• Lorne asked Maric whether his curse would cause problems, and Maric said he would try to keep it under control.
• Lorne asked Sharron to knock before visiting him in the future so his landlady would not think he was haunted.

Lorne joined Sharron and Maric’s ambush against Steve, the Wraith, but the enemy team’s Scarlet Lunar Corona disrupted their plan and left Sharron and Maric in danger. As Steve prepared to strike, Lorne activated his charm to intervene.

• Lorne sensed that the ambush could be dangerous, but he refused to abandon Sharron and Maric and promised to use a teleportation gemstone if they faced an emergency.
• Lorne hid on a warehouse roof as Maric led Jason, the Zombie, and Tiel, the Werewolf, into the clearing.
• Maric’s buried Zombies failed to stop Jason, and Sharron possessed the Zombie before Tiel activated the Scarlet Lunar Corona, forcing her out and weakening her.
• Sharron used her glove to summon a bronze door that seized Jason, while Maric struggled against the curse and Tiel urged him to lose control.
• Lorne spotted Steve, the Wraith, preparing to attack Maric, so he activated the charm in his sleeve.

Lorne attacked Werewolf Tiel with holy water, a mental assault, and a rune sword, but Wraith Steve’s shriek disrupted the battle and left Tiel alive. Lorne appeared to surrender, then revealed a black long gun and aimed at Tiel in midair.

• Lorne struck Tiel with holy water and used Mental Storm to attack him with the Rune Steel Sword, but frost interfered and Tiel survived the wounds.
• Tiel transformed into a werewolf as Lorne retreated, while Wraith Steve revealed himself and unleashed a shriek that injured Lorne and Maric.
• Lorne dropped his sword and Phantom revolver and claimed he surrendered, astonishing Maric and Sharron.
• Tiel lunged at the apparently unarmed Lorne, who revealed a black long gun and aimed it at Tiel as he descended.

Lorne and Sharron fought Steve and Jason while the Scarlet Lunar Corona and poison weakened them. Lorne used the blue gem and a strange ear to overwhelm Steve with maddening mutterings, and Sharron finished him after killing Jason.

• Lorne killed Tiel with a barrage of purification bullets, then fired at Steve to drive him back.
• Maric attacked and wounded Lorne, while Steve ambushed Sharron but was driven off by Lorne’s Black Flame.
• Poison weakened Lorne, Sharron, and Maric, and Lorne realized the Scarlet Lunar Corona was amplifying the Full Moon Muttering.
• Lorne hurled a blue gem near the Corona, then used a charm to vanish and planted a pitch-black ear inside Steve, forcing him out of Wraith form.
• Lorne reappeared and shot Steve, who crushed his own head and tried to flee as a huge phantom.
• Sharron used the Scarlet Lunar Corona to regain her powers, killed Jason, and brought down Steve with a Wraith Shriek.

After the battle, Lorne and Sharron confirmed that Steve and his companions were gone, then prepared to leave before official Beyonders arrived. Lorne collapsed from exhaustion, and after Maric recovered, Lorne punched him to settle the score for the earlier blow.

• Lorne used Spirit Vision to check the ruined battlefield, and Sharron confirmed that Steve and his companions were no longer nearby.
• Sharron urged Lorne to leave before official Beyonders arrived, but Lorne collapsed from exhaustion and she caught him.
• Lorne joked with Sharron about being her creditor and asked her to carry him, but she handed him over to Maric when he arrived.
• Maric apologized for losing control under the full moon and Steve's Shriek, and Lorne asked whether he was injured.
• Lorne punched Maric in the abdomen and said they were even.

After escaping the dockyard battle, Lorne fled divination and searched for the injured boy Will, whose tarot readings might explain his recent misfortune. He found Doctor Aaron at the hospital, and Aaron revealed that he had also become unlucky.

• In the carriage, Lorne told Sharron and Maric that the cursed item he used on Steve was connected to a Listener, and Sharron suggested he see a psychiatrist.
• Ikanser Bernard asked Arrodes who had fought at the dockyard, but the mirror showed only blurred images and demanded that Ikanser answer a question about his sexual orientation.
• When Lorne sensed someone divining him, he left his lodgings and spent the night at an inn before heading out in disguise.
• Lorne recognized a hospital he had visited before, remembered a child's warning about his bad luck, and decided to seek out Will for a tarot reading.
• Lorne found Doctor Aaron and explained that he wanted to consult Will; Aaron asked whether Lorne had become unlucky too.

Lorne learned that Doctor Aaron had suffered a string of misfortunes after a tarot reading with Will, who had predicted Aaron’s luck would worsen. Suspecting Will and unable to investigate while injured, Lorne decided to hire a detective, while Klein resumed his private detective work and sensed trouble approaching.

• Doctor Aaron told Lorne that his recent run of bad luck began after Will predicted it during a tarot reading.
• Aaron showed Lorne a Paper Crane that Will had given him for good luck, but Lorne found nothing unusual about it.
• Lorne concluded that Will needed investigating and, because he and Sharron were injured, proposed hiring a detective.
• Klein resumed his private detective business as Sherlock Moriarty and wondered why he suddenly had a bad feeling.

While recovering and revising his firearm designs, Lorne learned that children had been disappearing from East Borough families and later met Sherlock Moriarty there. As Lorne invited Sherlock to dinner, Sherlock rushed toward a nearby family calling for help.

• Lorne hid at an East Borough inn to recover and worked on improving his submachine gun designs.
• Lorne visited his firearms factory, discussed production limits with Ted, and learned from Old Kohler that several workers' children had gone missing.
• Lorne encountered Sherlock Moriarty, who said his investigation into Will Auceptin had stalled because the family had moved away.
• Lorne invited Sherlock to dinner, and the two heard a distressed family searching for Daisy.
• Sherlock immediately strode toward the voices, leaving Lorne surprised by his apparent kindness.

Lorne and Klein investigated the disappearance of Daisy, a poor family's young daughter, and agreed to help for free. After Lorne took Daisy's mother Liv and her sister Frye-ya to report the abduction, he paid a policeman to give the case more attention and headed back to meet Klein.

• Lorne and Klein found Liv and Frye-ya grieving over Daisy's disappearance in an alley.
• Klein offered to investigate for free, and Lorne persuaded Liv to explain how Daisy had vanished while walking home with Frye-ya.
• Klein stayed behind to search the alley for clues while Lorne escorted Liv and Frye-ya to the police station.
• A dismissive policeman registered Daisy's disappearance, and Lorne slipped him money to encourage him to take the case seriously.
• Lorne finished the report and led Liv and Frye-ya back to see whether Klein had found any clues.

Lorne and Klein investigated the disappearance of Daisy, and Lorne later tracked the kidnappings to Capim’s gang and a villa on Iris Street. His Calamity Premonition warned him of danger as he approached the villa, where unusual commotion was underway.

• Klein learned that Daisy’s vocabulary notebook was at home and took it to begin his investigation while Lorne accompanied him.
• Lorne gave Klein his business card and asked him to look into the disappearances of his employees’ children.
• Lorne divined that investigating the kidnappings carried great risk and suspected a Sequence 8 Beyonder was involved.
• Lorne interrogated a gang member, who revealed that kidnappers were paid five pounds per person and named Capim.
• Lorne traced the kidnappings to a detached villa on Iris Street, where his Calamity Premonition activated amid strange spiritual commotion.

Klein infiltrated Capim’s villa to stop the abuse and trafficking of abducted children, but the anesthetic failed to incapacitate the powerful Beyonders inside, forcing him to fight. Outside, Lorne sensed the battle and prepared to use the confusion to rescue the children.

• Klein learned that Capim’s villa held military weapons, several powerful Beyonders, and officials who used abducted children as gifts for their guests.
• Klein released anesthetic gas in the dining room, knocking out Capim, servants, and maids, but Harras and the other Beyonders reacted in time.
• Klein attacked Harras with Air Bullets while descending into the villa in his Black Emperor guise.
• Lorne watched the villa from the shadows, sensed the fight, and decided to rescue the children amid the confusion.

Lorne infiltrated Capim Villa, freed the captive girls, and photographed evidence of Capim’s crimes. As he tried to escape, he smelled gas and was caught in a devastating explosion.

• Lorne entered Capim Villa, killed Berris, and broke into the dungeon to free Daisy and the other captive girls.
• He directed the girls toward a church and watched them leave the villa grounds safely.
• Lorne searched the study and found letters and a ledger suggesting Capim sought a knighthood while powerful forces held his family under house arrest.
• He photographed the documents for leverage, returned them to their places, and headed for a side exit.
• Lorne smelled gas and rushed toward a window, but an explosion struck him and blacked out his vision.