Chapter Summaries

Lorne weighed the costs of expanding his businesses, chose a four-leaf clover emblem for his soda, and learned that Weller would become his hereditary fief when he was made a viscount. He discussed the coming investiture with Archbishop Anthony and asked him to help secure the release of apothecary Darkwill.

• Lorne reviewed the expenses of expanding his household, pharmaceutical factory, and soda business, then planned to mortgage his colonial lands for a bank loan.
• Lorne rejected his unsettling snake-like emblem design and sketched a four-leaf clover for his soda bottles, considering a lucky bottle-cap promotion.
• Charles examined counterfeit banknotes and instructed Bart to approach Viscount Sheehan and Earl Levin with profitable schemes targeting wealthy moderates.
• Archbishop Anthony told Lorne that Weller and nearby land would become his hereditary fief and explained that his investiture ceremony would take place the following Wednesday.
• Lorne asked Archbishop Anthony to help Darkwill, and Anthony agreed to arrange his release if the apothecary's innocence and the elixirs' destination were confirmed.

A steep tax increase drove Valterik City's exploited residents toward revolt, while Alfred weighed deploying Loenese troops to suppress them. Xize delayed the Society's uprising plans, arranged food aid, and suspected that the Society's support for unrest might be part of a larger effort to destabilize the Northern Continent's economy.

• Valterik City's residents protested the new taxes, clashed with local police, and pushed the square toward a riot.
• A subordinate reported the unrest to Alfred, who ordered soldiers to prepare and instructed them to use warning shots before following the plan discussed earlier.
• Xize discussed the likely deaths and the risks of launching an uprising before the Society's forces were ready, then sent a subordinate to distribute smuggled food aid.
• Xize considered how a Southern Continent uprising could cut off the Northern Continent's market for dumped goods and trigger a severe economic crisis.
• Xize suspected the Society's leaders might be preparing for a continent-wide war and decided to warn them about the Rose School.

Lorne supported Sharron and Maric’s preparations while managing his expanding businesses and seeking materials through his connections. He wrote Antigonus asking about the Fool, leaving the ancient angel curious about why a Wheel of Fortune demigod wanted to know.

• Sharron told Lorne that she and Maric would leave Backlund to search the Spirit World for a place needed for Maric’s advancement, and Lorne gave her a blessing and a charm.
• Lorne handled business with the Church of Steam and Machinery, his factories, and Umbrella, then asked Xio to arrange guards for his villa and help contact Audrey about a loan.
• Fors asked Lorne to find mirror dragon’s eyes, and he agreed to seek them through his channels.
• Lorne wrote to Antigonus requesting Beyonder materials and asking about the Fool, then sent the letter with Antigonus’s Wolf’s Claw Whistle.
• Antigonus received the letter and wondered why Lorne was asking him about the Fool.

Antigonus replied to Lorne’s inquiry about the Fool, identifying it as a High Sequence of the Seer Pathway and sharing intelligence about the Secret Order. Lorne investigated the Society’s materials list, found the mirror dragon eyes Xio needed, and prepared to face a busy stretch of public and royal engagements.

• Antigonus recalled the Fool rumors in Backlund, then wrote Lorne about the Seer Pathway, his own former title as the Half-Fool, and the Secret Order, while also sending a list of materials and prices.
• Antigonus’s messenger delivered the reply, and Lorne reasoned that neither Antigonus nor Zaratul was likely to be the Fool, though he planned to verify the information.
• Lorne wrote back that he had heard about the Fool through rumors spread by Mr. A’s search for believers, then found mirror dragon eyes on the Society’s materials list.
• Lorne told Xio he had found the material for Fors and gave her information about an affordable soda to use as advertising inspiration.
• Xio asked Lorne to help find materials and formulas for her next potion, and he agreed to help while teasingly calling it a favor she owed him.
• Lorne left the Umbrella Security Company in Xio’s hands as he prepared for a press conference and a royal decoration ceremony.

Lorne publicly recounted a fabricated version of how he stopped the Aurora Order’s plot, then was named a hereditary viscount with a landed fief. As Xio and Audrey considered what his rise meant for their own lives and families, Lorne declined political invitations and received a corpse from Bernadette, leaving him curious about the royal family’s actions.

• Lorne told reporters that he had discovered the Aurora Order’s explosives, destroyed their detonator, escaped through the Tussock River, and received help from the Church of Storms.
• A royal representative announced that James Scott had been made a hereditary viscount and granted Viller and its surrounding lands as his fief.
• Xio read about Scott’s ennoblement, imagined how her former noble status might have changed their prospects, and resolved to clear her father’s name.
• Audrey considered Scott’s connections and abilities, hoped Fors would soon obtain the materials she needed, and worried about the political reforms troubling her family.
• Lorne declined invitations and requests for visits until his investiture ceremony was over, then received a corpse delivered by Bernadette and wondered about the royal family’s plans.

Lorne interrogated Finkel’s spirit and uncovered evidence that MI9’s leadership and possibly the royal family had allowed the Backlund catastrophe to happen. He gave Xio the Sequence 7 Interrogator formula, urged her to cultivate her MI9 contact, and prepared to meet the king.

• Lorne channeled Finkel’s spirit, learned the Interrogator and Judge formulas, and discovered that Finkel had monitored Prince Edessak and arranged for him to be killed during the catastrophe.
• Finkel revealed that MI9’s upper ranks had ordered him to prepare to withdraw and silence witnesses, leading Lorne to suspect that the military and royal family had enabled the attack.
• Lorne rejected social invitations and hired two veteran soldiers through Xio to protect his villa from intrusive reporters.
• Xio brought Lorne personnel files, and he gave her the Sequence 7 Interrogator formula; she accepted it as an advance against her future salary and bonuses.
• Lorne instructed Xio to keep engaging her masked MI9 contact and seek greater access to military intelligence, then set out to prepare for his visit to the king at Sodela Palace.

Fors felt jealous when Xio told her that Scott had found her a Sequence 7 potion formula, then tried to hide her feelings. Meanwhile, Lorne examined his formal attire before his investiture at Sodrak Palace and considered who might pose a threat.

• Xio told Fors that Lorne had given her the Sequence 7 potion formula after she had mentioned it to Scott.
• Fors envied Xio’s connection with Scott, caught herself imagining that he might be especially kind to her, and pretended to focus on his advertising request.
• Xio reassured herself that Fors was in love with her pen pal and was only overthinking their friendship with Scott.
• Lorne tried on his formalwear at a tailor’s shop and worried that something might go wrong at his investiture the next day.
• Lorne considered the king’s limited Sequence and decided that the military’s upper ranks and hidden high-Sequence members of the Augustus family were greater threats.

Lorne attended his royal investiture and became Viscount Scott, but his demigod intuition detected something deeply abnormal about King George III. At the ensuing palace banquet, he kept his suspicions to himself and noticed Earl Hall appeared to have suffered bad luck.

• Doctor Aaron read that James Scott was alive and would receive a viscount title, then joked that he might become the Allens' baby's godfather.
• Lorne arrived at Sodela Palace and felt uneasy as he entered the Throne Room to meet King George III.
• Lorne's Misfortune Mage intuition reacted strongly to George III, though the king seemed ordinary and the Church demigods showed no sign of noticing anything unusual.
• George III formally made Lorne a viscount, presenting him with a coronet, a noble's ring, and a deed to his fief in Weller City.
• At the royal banquet, Lorne avoided asking Archbishop Anthony about the king and noticed that Earl Hall seemed to have had poor luck lately.

At a banquet, Earl Hall tested Lorne’s political loyalties, then offered him a favorable bank loan after recognizing the value of his reputation and influence. Lorne later met royal adviser Hervin Rambis, a demigod who noticed Lorne’s brief reaction and wondered whether he had sensed something.

• Earl Hall asked Lorne whether he supported the Reformists, but Lorne deflected by emphasizing his business ties and friendships among the nobility.
• Earl Hall reflected that Lorne’s role in saving Backlund gave him exceptional public prestige and protection from attacks by either political faction.
• Lorne praised Earl Hall’s banking success and raised his need for financing, and Earl Hall offered a preferential loan from Bavart Bank pending review of the collateral.
• Lorne met Hervin Rambis, the Royal Family’s chief adviser, and recognized him as a demigod through his spiritual intuition.
• After their polite conversation, Hervin noticed Lorne’s momentary reaction and wondered whether the viscount had realized something about him.

At a Backlund banquet, Lorne cautiously navigated political alliances while the royal adviser Hvin Rambis inexplicably abandoned an attempt to probe him. At sea, Klein recognized his own bounty poster under the name Monkey Brando, while Leonard arrived to release the imprisoned Darkwill.

• Lorne spoke with Prime Minister Aguesid Negan, who asked him to help mediate tensions during the Conservative Party's transition and reforms; Lorne gave an ambiguous, positive response.
• Hvin Rambis approached Lorne intending to inspect his subconscious, abruptly froze, and walked away without realizing he had apparently forgotten something.
• Aboard the White Agate, Klein heard Elland describe pirate news and examined a faded ten-thousand-pound bounty poster bearing the name Monkey Brando, which he recognized as himself.
• Darkwill complained in his cell beneath Saint Samuel Cathedral and offered Leonard potions in exchange for help getting released.
• Leonard unlocked Darkwill's cell and told him someone had come to bail him out.

Darkwill was released from custody and returned to his shop, while Lorne’s ennoblement was followed by an unsettling change in his divinity. In Damir Port, Danitz mistook the dangerous Enlek for Brando and tried to flee, but Enlek stopped him.

• Leonard escorted Darkwill out of custody after a bishop told him someone had paid his bail, and Darkwill returned to his herbs shop.
• Harry claimed credit for Darkwill’s release, and he and Darkwill argued before Harry threw bottles at him.
• Lorne returned from his investiture banquet, instructed Asnia to prepare for visitors and a private party, and sensed that his divinity had stirred; a penny he flicked stood upright on the desk.
• Danitz arrived in Damir Port broke and heard rumors that Vice Admiral of Ailment Tracy had captured Brando.
• Enlek left a bar after dealing with Sea Eagle Logan and caught Danitz watching him; Danitz mistook him for Brando and tried to leave, but Enlek grabbed his shoulder.

Klein confronted Danitz about Brando, but Danitz escaped after a surprise fire attack and hurried to warn his captain and Brando. In Backlund, Lorne visited the Brave One bar, chose the Valentin Party as his next target, and offered Ian a chance to pursue supernatural power.

• Klein restrained Danitz and demanded to know about Brando, but Danitz used a fire raven to escape the alley.
• Danitz disguised himself, bought the earliest available ticket to Bayam aboard the White Agate, and planned to warn his captain and write to Brando.
• Lorne visited the Brave One bar and reviewed reports on East Borough gangs while discussing the pressures of his new noble status.
• Lorne chose Luca's Valentin Party as a target and decided to begin with one of its underground casinos.
• Lorne praised Ian's leadership potential and asked whether he wanted to become someone with supernatural powers.

Lorne recruited Ian as a potential behind-the-scenes gang leader and considered making him a Lawyer Beyonder. Meanwhile, Klein confronted Danitz aboard the White Agate, and Lorne used his powers to ruin Rook at a Backlund casino before setting his sights on another target.

• Lorne persuaded Ian to accept his investment plan and began considering the Lawyer pathway as a suitable fit for him.
• Klein recognized the disguised Danitz aboard the White Agate and made him choose between becoming bounty money or taking Klein to his cabin as a hostage.
• Lorne defeated Rook at the Valentin Party’s casino, exposed his cheating, and followed him into an alley.
• Lorne used a trick to make Rook win repeatedly, then caused him to choke to death after his borrowed luck ran out.
• Lorne considered using a new idea on another target.

Marcus Kane dismissed a threatening “Letter of Calamity” as a prank, unaware that Lorne was spreading the letters to trigger panic among Backlund’s criminals. In East Balam, Xize rejected a proposed alliance with the Rose School’s Indulgence Faction and considered contacting the Temperance Faction as violence in the city escalated.

• Marcus Kane ordered his men to consolidate the black-market arms trade and pursued plans to become legitimate before finding an unsigned curse letter on his carriage.
• Marcus spat on the letter, threw it away, and ordered his bodyguard to investigate who had approached his carriage.
• Lorne used his Misfortune Mage abilities to give desperate gang gamblers temporary good luck and secretly planted Letters of Calamity among selected men.
• Lorne planned for the letters and fear of bad luck to spread among Backlund’s criminals, while reserving fatal misfortune for the first people he had selected.
• Xize rejected cooperation with the Rose School’s Indulgence Faction and learned that Loen troops had killed nearly a hundred people during the crackdown in East Balam.
• Xize considered contacting the Rose School’s Temperance Faction to contain the Indulgence Faction and decided to ask his superiors for leads.

Lorne negotiated a large loan with Earl Hall, agreeing to put up domestic land and part of his businesses as collateral while protecting control of his ventures. After signing the deal, he learned Audrey Hall had bought shares in his soda factory and agreed to meet her.

• Lorne arrived at Bavart Bank with Lawyer Jurgen and Burke to negotiate a 280,000-pound loan with Earl Hall.
• Earl Hall proposed using the loan to gain a stake in Lorne's profitable businesses, especially his planned sparkling-water venture.
• Lorne negotiated a compromise involving land, some factory shares as collateral, and a small share purchase and investment rights for Earl Hall.
• After checking the arrangement with a coin divination, Lorne accepted the terms and signed the loan contract.
• Lorne learned Audrey Hall had purchased part of the soda factory's initial shares and agreed to meet her.

Earl Hall gave Audrey a 15-percent stake in a soda factory as part of his deal with Viscount Scott. Meanwhile, Lorne discussed marriage alliances with Xio, whose worries about losing him pushed her to renew her resolve to clear her family’s name.

• Earl Hall explained the soda business’s potential to Audrey and gave her documents to sign for a 15-percent stake in the factory.
• Lorne and Xio traveled to her apartment, where they talked about the pressures of noble society and Lorne’s recent dealings.
• Lorne told Xio that political factions were considering marriage alliances to win him over, and he joked about his ideal partner.
• Xio feared that circumstances could separate her from Lorne and resolved to uncover the truth behind her father’s death and clear her family’s disgrace.
• Lorne remained confident he could avoid any forced marriage, relying on his allies and his ability to escape or assume a new identity.

Lorne inspired Fors to write supernatural detective fiction, supplying her with adapted mystery plots and suggesting that the detective be a woman or disguise herself as a man. He then arrived with Fors and Xio to meet Audrey, whose request for extraordinary jewelry and interest in the soda business were interrupted when she sensed Lorne pause at the sight of her.

• Lorne learned that Audrey had commissioned the ingredient Fors bought and reassured Fors that she could advertise the soda in a later novel.
• Lorne suggested that Fors write supernatural detective fiction, with a Beyonder detective and soda integrated into the story.
• Lorne gave Fors numerous mystery plots and encouraged her to adapt the detective into a lady detective or a woman disguised as a man.
• Fors eagerly accepted the idea, while Lorne told Xio that the detective was reserved and that she and Fors had probably met him before.
• Audrey waited for Lorne, Fors, and Xio, hoping to collect the Mirror Dragon Eyes, order protective jewelry, and discuss soda; when Lorne entered, she noticed him pause and felt her heart skip.

Lorne met Audrey to settle Fors’s payment for the Mirror Dragon’s eyes, arranged purifying jewelry for her family, and discussed their soda business. He suspected Audrey secretly worshipped the Fool, while Klein questioned Danitz about Monchi Brando and Tracy aboard the White Agate.

• Lorne noticed that Audrey carried an aura resembling Fors’s and wondered whether she was a believer of the Fool.
• Audrey paid Fors for the Mirror Dragon’s eyes and commissioned purifying jewelry from Lorne for her family.
• Lorne and Audrey discussed their soda factory, and Audrey approved Fors’s plan to advertise the drink through a novel.
• On the carriage ride back, Lorne learned that Xio had never attended the underground Beyonder gathering with Audrey and Fors, deepening his suspicions about the Fool’s influence.
• Aboard the White Agate, Klein questioned Danitz about Monchi Brando and the bounty Tracy had placed on him, but Danitz denied that they had a romantic relationship.

Audrey learned that Earl Hall was preparing to meet Earl Levin, while Charles advanced a covert effort to win over Conservative nobles. Elsewhere, Marcus’s gang spread a cursed letter by copying it, causing an East Borough stationery boom, and Tracy plotted to lure Brando to her aboard the Black Death.

• Audrey concealed her Beyonder transaction from Earl Hall, who learned that Earl Levin wanted a secret meeting and considered using it to broker a political deal.
• Charles reflected on his campaign to recruit Conservative nobles and his secret contact with Della Negan, whose efforts and targets aligned with his own.
• Marcus ordered his gang members to copy one hundred letters signed “Calamity” after a chain of supernatural misfortunes began following him.
• Gang members across the East Borough bought up writing paper, envelopes, pens, and ink, paying shopkeepers and causing the supplies to sell out.
• Tracy watched news of Brando’s rise in Backlund and decided to track the Golden Dream’s crew so she could draw him to her aboard the Black Death.

Lorne collected Darkwill’s elixir formula in exchange for the bail he had paid, then arranged a dinner party as news of riots in Balam reached Backlund. In East Balam, Xize and a Sanguine Earl decided to preserve their forces and exploit the unrest to target Loen’s colonial army.

• Lorne visited Darkwill, revealed that he had paid five hundred pounds for his bail, and asked for the formula for Darkwill’s elixir.
• Darkwill gave Lorne the formula, declined a job offer, and briefly identified his group as the School of Life under Lorne’s pressure.
• Lorne sent Frank the formula and research funding, then told Asnia to decline Viscount Sean’s invitation and schedule a dinner party for next Monday.
• Lorne read reports of riots in Balam, while newsboys in Backlund repeated the colonial government’s account of the clashes.
• Xize and the Sanguine Earl agreed to let the unrest occupy Loen’s troops while they prepared to capture Loen demigods.