Chapter Summaries

Klein joined the Truth Society after reviewing its contract and learning about its commissions, support, and protections. In Bayam, Lorne unexpectedly ran into Danitz, who accused him of being with a group pursuing him, just as the pursuers caught up.

• Klein visited the Truth Society and discovered it served as a gathering place for detectives, bounty hunters, and Rogue Beyonders.
• Charles Hoorn showed Klein the guild contract, and Klein signed as Sherlock Moriarty after considering its terms.
• Charles gave Klein his identification card and five-pound subsidy, then invited him to lunch.
• Lorne arrived in Bayam and headed into an alley to look for information.
• Lorne encountered Danitz, who accused him of being with the people chasing him as hurried footsteps approached.

Lorne and the wounded Danitz fought Claw Kus and his two pirates in an alley, defeating them with Phantom, Lucky, and Danitz’s fireballs. After the fight, Lorne aimed his pistol at Danitz and considered the three-thousand-pound bounty on him.

• Danitz claimed Lorne was his new lackey when Claw Kus and two pirates confronted them, dragging Lorne into the fight.
• Claw Kus transformed into a Werewolf and attacked as Lorne bound his arm with spider silk and Danitz hurled a fireball.
• A pirate accidentally shot his companion, and Lorne finished the wounded man while Lucky killed the other pirate.
• Claw Kus broke free and charged Lorne, but became distracted by Phantom; Lucky clawed his eyes, and Danitz blasted him with a fireball.
• Lorne retrieved Phantom, then aimed it at the badly injured Danitz and hinted at claiming the three-thousand-pound bounty.

Lorne questioned Danitz at gunpoint, then befriended him over drinks and negotiated for help collecting the pirates’ bounties. Danitz tried to recruit Lorne and praised his captain, while Lorne concealed his real name by calling himself Monkey Brando.

• Lorne questioned Danitz about why he was in town, how much money he had, and whether he liked his captain; a coin confirmed Danitz was telling the truth about arriving by chance.
• Danitz warned Lorne that the dead pirates had worked for Steel Maveti, the Admiral of Blood’s second mate, and offered to help collect the bounty.
• Lorne lowered his gun, treated Danitz’s wound, and agreed to take forty percent of the bounty if Danitz handled the collection.
• Lorne and Danitz drank together, and Danitz tried to recruit Lorne while reassuring him that the Admiral of Blood would not cause immediate trouble.
• Danitz praised his captain, the Vice Admiral Iceberg, and asked Lorne’s name; Lorne gave the false name Monkey Brando.

Lorne attended a Beyonder gathering to seek a Sequence 7 Monster potion formula, but found no seller. Instead, he sold five pages of Roselle's Diary to Alger Wilson, confirming his plan to profit from fabricated diary entries.

• Lorne used Danitz's name to enter a concealed Beyonder gathering and bought three bottles of a wound-healing concoction and five bottles of an aphrodisiac.
• Lorne asked whether anyone had the Sequence 7 Monster potion formula, but no one responded.
• Lorne offered pages from Roselle's Diary, and Alger Wilson agreed to buy them after checking a sample page for signs of authenticity.
• Lorne sold Alger five diary pages, two genuine and three fabricated, for a little over ten pounds.
• Lorne concluded that selling his own Roselle's Diary entries could be profitable and began planning more installments.

After a gathering, Lorne met Roy King, who offered to mentor him and revealed that the Monster Pathway's Sequence 7 Potion was called “Lucky One.” As Lorne headed to meet Danitz, his spiritual intuition warned him that hostile Beyonders were following him.

• A medicinal-concoction seller followed Lorne after the gathering and revealed himself as Roy King, a Beyonder of the Monster Pathway.
• Roy King offered to take Lorne as his student, but Lorne said he needed a few days to consider the offer.
• Roy King gave Lorne his address, named the Sequence 7 Potion “Lucky One,” and remarked that Lorne's pet was impressive.
• Lorne decided to ask Danitz for advice about Roy King's offer as he made his way to their meeting place.
• Lorne sensed multiple hostile Beyonders following him and suspected either Danitz had set a trap or the Three Pirates' companions sought revenge.

Klein grew frustrated with the society’s routine detective commissions and lack of leads on Ince Zangwill. Charles offered him a discreet debt-collection assignment, and Klein accepted after learning he would receive twenty percent of the recovered money.

• Klein gave a client photographs proving her husband’s affair, then talked her down when she asked him to kill her husband and his lover.
• The client paid her outstanding balance and left Klein a one-soli tip, while Klein reflected that his commissions offered little help in finding Ince Zangwill.
• Klein ate lunch at the society cafeteria and shamelessly packed an extra portion before someone summoned him to Charles’s office.
• Charles told Klein that a debtor who owed the society more than a thousand pounds had disappeared with the money.
• Charles offered Klein twenty percent if he recovered the debt, and Klein agreed to take the assignment.

Klein accepted a debt-collection job from Charles, while Lorne escaped pirates using a Door Opening charm and discovered deeds for several houses. Danitz, wounded and pursued by Steel, collapsed in front of Lorne and warned him of the danger.

• Charles assigned Klein to find Emlyn White within three days and tell him the Society would dispose of his collateral.
• Charles asked Bart whether Sherlock met the Society’s standards, then said he wanted to see whether Sherlock could find the vampire.
• Lorne used a Door Opening charm to escape pursuing pirates but fell into a basement and broke its sealed door to get out.
• Lucky found a leather bag containing deeds to houses numbered 12 through 16 on Fragrant Tree Avenue, and Lorne wondered what would happen if he took them.
• Danitz fled Steel’s pursuit and collapsed in front of Lorne, warning him about Steel.

Lorne cared for the wounded Danitz in a hideout after Steel ambushed him, then accidentally gave him an aphrodisiac instead of a healing potion. Danitz became aroused and fixated on Phantom, leaving Lorne trying to stop him from escalating.

• Danitz woke in an inconspicuous inn, where Lorne explained that he had carried him there and treated his wounds with a Healing Potion.
• Danitz said Steel and his men had ambushed him, and admitted that the bounty money was gone.
• Lorne told Danitz about Roy King, and Danitz offered to teach him mysticism aboard the Golden Dream.
• When Danitz could not stand, Lorne gave him another potion, but realized he had handed him an Aphrodisiac instead of a healing potion.
• Danitz lunged at Lorne, became infatuated with Phantom, snatched the pistol, and began taking off his pants.

After Danitz and Lorne fled Bayam, a strange insect from a cultists’ ritual burrowed into Danitz’s leg. They sought help from Roy King, who proposed extracting it with forceps as it moved toward Danitz’s crotch.

• Danitz made Lorne promise to keep their earlier incident secret, and they left Bayam to avoid possible enemies.
• At an abandoned pier, Lorne became entranced by the crimson moon, and an eerie insect flew past him and struck Danitz’s wound.
• Lorne examined the moving bulge in Danitz’s leg but could not remove it, so he took Danitz to the nearby address on Roy King’s business card.
• Roy King warned that he might have to amputate Danitz’s leg, but changed his plan when the insect began moving toward Danitz’s crotch.
• Roy King took out forceps and said he would pull the insect out from behind while Lorne held Danitz down, and Danitz struggled in horror.

Klein joined a detective guild discussion about a series of thefts involving wealthy victims and possible supernatural phenomena, then remembered the Tarot Club meeting and faked food poisoning to leave. At the meeting, he read Roselle's diary entries about Mr. Door and Roselle's affairs, while the detectives wondered why Sherlock had been gone so long.

• Klein considered investigating Emlyn White and accepted Sean's invitation to Old John's case discussion about wealthy victims and suspected supernatural activity.
• Klein realized the Tarot Club meeting had begun, pretended to be sick, and slipped away to a washroom to enter the gray fog.
• Alger presented five pages of Roselle's Diary, and Klein read Roselle's account of meeting Mr. Door, followed by entries about his romantic exploits.
• At the detective discussion, the others noticed Klein's prolonged absence and wondered whether something was wrong with his stomach.

Klein searched for the missing Emlyn White after learning that he had not returned home, while Charles prepared for the Truth Society’s Impostor Project. Klein’s divination revealed Emlyn trapped in a basement beneath a Church of the Earth Mother building.

• Charles admired Emlyn’s dolls, which the Truth Society had acquired after Emlyn defaulted on his loan.
• Charles prepared a crimson-moon coat and red gloves as a template for the Society’s Impostor Project.
• Klein returned from the Tarot Club meeting and visited Emlyn’s home, where Mr. White said Emlyn had been missing for a week.
• Klein performed a divination above the gray fog to locate Emlyn.
• Klein saw Emlyn trapped in a basement beneath a church bearing the emblem of the Church of the Earth Mother.

Klein found Emlyn White confined in Harvest Church, where Father Utravsky had imprisoned him to keep him from harming anyone. After Klein reported back to Charles that he could not retrieve Emlyn, Charles withheld his agreed share but offered him a reward before asking who had spread a rumor about spoiled cafeteria fish.

• Klein tracked Emlyn White to Harvest Church and met Father Utravsky, who led him to Emlyn in the basement.
• Emlyn insisted he was a noble Sanguine, while Father Utravsky explained that he had confined him because he feared Emlyn might hurt innocent people.
• Klein told Emlyn that the Truth Society would dispose of the treasures he had used as collateral, prompting Emlyn to pound furiously on the stone door.
• Klein reported to Charles that he had not brought Emlyn back, and Charles said he would not receive the agreed-upon share.
• Charles offered Klein a reward, then asked whether he knew who was spreading rumors about the cafeteria fish.

Klein accepted Ian’s private commission to locate his former employer, the missing Detective Zreal, despite the risks and the Truth Society’s rules. In Bayam, Lorne’s teasing drove Danitz unconscious, and Danitz remained desperate to keep their recent ordeal secret from his captain and crewmates.

• Klein received two gift vouchers instead of a cash reward after admitting that his stomach trouble had not been caused by the society’s cafeteria.
• Ian asked Klein to investigate the whereabouts of his former employer, Detective Zreal Victor Lee, whose identity had been impersonated in public.
• Ian offered Klein either a fixed fee or five pounds in advance with further payment based on the commission’s difficulty, and Klein agreed to take the job.
• Roy King removed a bug from Danitz’s wound, but Lorne’s threat to reveal Danitz’s secret made Danitz pass out.
• Lorne declined Roy King’s apprenticeship offer so he could escort Danitz, then warned Danitz that Roy King might reveal what he had witnessed if anything happened to Lorne.
• Danitz tried to persuade Lorne not to come to the Golden Dream and pleaded that his captain never learn what had happened.

Lorne and Danitz boarded a passenger ship to Damir Port after deciding it was safer than searching for the Golden Dream by boat. As the ship sailed, Lorne wondered whether the Evernight Goddess was behind his misfortunes and considered whether an unorthodox deity might help him return home.

• Danitz chose to travel by passenger ship to Damir Port, and Lorne asked Roy King to buy their tickets.
• Lorne questioned Danitz's disguise and worried that Steel might be watching the harbor, but Danitz insisted they would be safe.
• The two boarded the ship without trouble, and Lorne's intuition and divination gave no warning of danger.
• Danitz said the night and red moon were symbols of the Evernight Goddess, prompting Lorne to connect her honorific name with his unease and misfortunes.
• Danitz told Lorne that cultists worshiped the Primordial Moon, and Lorne wondered whether an unorthodox deity could help him return home.

Lorne and Danitz reached the Golden Dream, where Lorne asked Vice Admiral Iceberg, Edwina Edwards, to let him stay and study Mysticism. Edwina agreed, and Lorne ended the chapter confronting Danitz for calling him a subordinate.

• Danitz admitted he needed the captain's permission before bringing Lorne aboard and contacted her using Ritual Magic.
• Danitz led Lorne out to sea, where they met the Golden Dream and Lorne saw its Purification Cannon.
• Lorne boarded the Golden Dream and told Edwina that he and Danitz were friends, not superior and subordinate.
• Edwina questioned Lorne about his education, languages, and Mysticism knowledge, then approved his stay and tutoring.
• Edwina allowed Lucky to remain aboard and assigned Danitz to handle Lorne's arrangements.
• After Edwina left, Lorne challenged Danitz about calling him a subordinate and brought up their saw-and-legs agreement.

Lorne settled into life aboard Edwina's pirate ship, where he discovered the crew attended lessons and was assigned an Ancient Hermes dictionary to study. At lunch, he met Jodson and learned that the third mate had stayed with the crew after Edwina rejected his attempt to win her heart.

• Danitz arranged for Lorne to sleep in a storeroom after Lorne teased him about their sleeping arrangements.
• Danitz woke Lorne for six o'clock morning class, where Edwina assigned him the first hundred pages of an Ancient Hermes dictionary and ordered Danitz back to studying too.
• Lorne used his enhanced memory to finish the assigned reading before lunch.
• Jodson offered Lorne a yogurt-like drink, and Danitz warned him that Jodson was a foul-smelling playboy.
• Danitz told Lorne that Jodson had tried to steal Edwina's heart, been beaten up, and stayed aboard to receive an education.
• Lorne asked Danitz whether the crew had gathered around Edwina because they admired her.

Lorne impressed Edwina with his memory and understanding of potion digestion, and she decided to give him more lessons. He learned that the Apprentice Pathway had powers related to space, then wondered whether to ask Edwina about Antigonus.

• Danitz insisted that the Golden Dream’s captain was merely their navigator, while Lorne teased him and praised the ship’s food-preserving ritual.
• Edwina tested Lorne’s knowledge and asked about his Sequence, teacher, and understanding of the Acting Method.
• Lorne admitted he understood the Acting Method, and Edwina deduced that he had learned to manage potion digestion through his own insight.
• Lorne asked Edwina about beings with authority over space and time, and she said the Apprentice Pathway had space-related abilities.
• Lorne noticed the crew watching him, used divination to check whether anyone was nearby, and considered asking Edwina about Antigonus.

Lorne asked Edwina to study copied pages from the Antigonus Notebook, and the two began deciphering it together. Their private meetings alarmed the pirates, who blamed Danitz for bringing Lorne aboard and confronted him.

• Lorne gave Edwina copied pages from an ancient book and watched as she recognized the name Antigonus and identified its Fourth Epoch history.
• Edwina explained that governments and Churches controlled Beyonder-related history and agreed that Lorne's material had exceptional scholarly value.
• Over the next few days, Edwina and Lorne studied the Antigonus Notebook while respecting each other's unspoken boundaries.
• A pirate eavesdropped on their private conversations, grew suspicious, and spread rumors among the crew.
• The pirates decided Danitz was responsible for Lorne's presence and surrounded him to demand a talk about Monkey Brando.

Danitz confronted Lorne about his frequent private meetings with Edwina, fearing the two were becoming involved. After Lorne explained that they were studying together, Danitz tried to persuade him to leave the ship at Bayam, and Lorne challenged his motives.

• Pirates questioned Danitz about bringing Monkey Brando aboard and accused him of letting Lorne pester Edwina, leaving Danitz alarmed when he realized they thought the two were spending time together.
• Lorne discovered that his Robot Potion had been fully digested and reflected on passivity as a defining trait of a Robot.
• Danitz visited Lorne's storeroom and demanded to know why Edwina had been meeting with him so often.
• Lorne said he and Edwina were researching something together, but kept the subject secret.
• Danitz hinted that Lorne should leave the ship when they passed Bayam, and Lorne asked if he was trying to get rid of him.

Lorne pressured Danitz into protecting his privacy and promising to cover for him until his lessons ended. Later, a sailor’s sabotage with a damaged fishing net went awry, and Lorne hauled up a huge key-shaped object from the sea.

• Lorne confronted Danitz about wanting him gone and made him agree to draw attention away from Lorne’s meetings with the captain.
• Lorne left the storeroom with Lucky and promised her a fish for afternoon tea.
• A sailor tricked Lorne into holding a damaged fishing net, which caught on something beneath the Golden Dream and tangled around his arm.
• Lorne and the sailor pulled the net onto the deck, where they found a huge key-shaped object among the debris.