Recaps

Cheng Jianxue, calling herself Neph, entered Moon City through the Blank Canvas and joined the Tarot Club while learning about her powers and the Forsaken Land of the Gods. She revealed the True Creator’s history, faced Amon’s interference, and warned Klein’s group about the danger surrounding their planned assassination.

• Cheng Jianxue became a Sequence 9 Corpse-Eater in a frozen white world, then emerged near Moon City and prayed to the True Creator so its people could perceive her.
• Zaphir’s patrol found Neph unconscious, and she introduced herself to High Priest Nim as a servant sent by the Lord who promised Moon City a miracle in two years.
• Neph explored the Blank Canvas, met Klein through Sefirah Castle, and offered potion formulas and information in exchange for food and a place in the Tarot Club.
• Neph told the Tarot Club about the Secret Order and the True Creator, requested food and Black-Faced Grass, and explained that Mummy Powder and historical study helped digest her potion.
• After Artisan Arula died, Neph told Nim about the True Creator’s origins and the Lord’s corruption, then detected Amon’s influence near Moon City’s clock and checked herself for a Worm of Time.
• Neph began combat practice and requested Magician potion ingredients at the Tarot Club, where she warned Klein’s group that Ambassador Beckland Jean Madan was a Sequence 6 Conspirer with a Sequence 5 Marionettist assistant.
• Neph told Klein to visit the Bravehearts Bar and said he could safely buy a Listener Beyonder characteristic under her Lord’s protection.

Neph negotiated for formulas and artifacts while helping Klein, then prepared Moon City for a ceremony honoring the God of Winter. After Amon confronted her and she advanced through several sequences, she escaped his avatar and reunited with Klein to study the Black Emperor Card of Blasphemy.

• Neph sold Klein the Barbarian potion formula and helped him acquire a Rune Steel Sword at a Beyonder gathering, where Klein also sold a crimson substance and sought protection from a Sequence 5 enemy.
• Neph told Klein that Audrey had hired Mr. A to assassinate Beckland, offered him the Unshadowed formula, and later arranged to help purify corruption in Moon City.
• Neph learned Moon City’s people had no tradition of funerals and began considering how to help them, while she continued trading potion formulas and materials with the Tarot Club.
• Neph used the Lucky Coin and the Blank Canvas to create A Bucket of White Paint, then revealed to Nim that she was the successor to the White Angel and used the artifact to erase Amon’s surveillance and cleanse corruption.
• Neph helped Nim remove corruption from himself and Bartel, wrote funeral instructions, and chose the honorific name of the God of Winter before Nim held a ceremony in her honor.
• Neph’s potion digested during the ceremony, but Amon appeared, restrained her with Jotun, took the Blank Canvas, and tried to charm her, and Neph resisted and proposed cooperation.
• Neph entered the Blank Canvas, digested the Dirge Poet potion, advanced through Winter Envoy, and later consumed the Faded Painter potion while Klein worried that she was missing.
• Neph severed Amon’s avatar from his main body, collected the dropped Worm of Time, and contacted Klein, who asked her to examine the Black Emperor Card of Blasphemy.

Neph left Moon City with Ouroboros and crossed the Sea of Ruins, where she joined Cattleya’s crew and met Bernadette and Frank Lee. She carried the True Creator’s message to the Fool and learned more about Amon, while the Tarot Club discussed dangers in the City of Silver.

• Neph warned Klein about Amon and the coming Backlund catastrophe, then recognized that she had been treating the world as a story and resolved to change her attitude.
• Neph left Moon City with Ouroboros, obtained the Wind-blessed potion formula on credit, and followed a cloud road to an island of enormous sunflowers.
• Neph contacted Cattleya and waited for the Future, then boarded the ship and encouraged Frank Lee’s experiments while advising him to keep them safe.
• Bernadette met Neph, learned that she had been born less than two months earlier, and refused to trade Roselle’s original diary for access to the Fool.
• Neph dreamed of the True Creator, who asked her to convey His wishes to the Fool, and she told the Tarot Club that He did not intend to be the Fool’s enemy.
• Neph learned from Derrick that Amon’s avatar had confronted him and that a Worm of Time remained after the avatar was purified.
• Neph told Derrick about the True Creator’s lost authority and advised him on Amon, while Klein lent him a Marionettist in exchange for a Thousand-Faced Hunter’s blood.
• Neph warned Klein that the True Creator watched her closely and told him Bernadette might become a believer of the Fool.

Neph pursued her potion digestion and learned that the Demoness Sect and Aurora Order planned a year-end disaster in Backlund, while helping Klein investigate a serial killer and warning the Tarot Club. After arranging for her paintings to publicize the danger, she sought guidance on her advancement ritual and arrived at Bansy Harbor.

• Neph learned that transmigrators came from the distant past and that the True Creator had sent her to meet Klein, then traveled with Cattleya aboard the Future and began pursuing her own plans ashore.
• Neph killed pirate One-Eye Anderson using an experiment with a portrait, later established herself in Bayam as a painter who left paintings at murder scenes, and delivered Ouroboros’s money to Mr. A.
• Neph learned that the Aurora Order and Demoness Sect planned a disaster in Backlund’s East Borough at year’s end, with Ince Zangwill involved, and told Klein she wanted to prevent deaths without revealing the ritual’s location.
• Neph invested 1,500 pounds in Raypard’s bicycle venture and later toured the East Borough with Klein, where she painted Ince Zangwill and Panatiya and helped him investigate threats against Isengard Stanton.
• Neph helped Klein and Isengard fight the Desire Apostle, identified Kasslana as corrupted, and told Ikanser Bernard that she worshipped Evernight and that he could ask Bernadette Gustav about her.
• Neph warned Klein that Amon occupied the mausoleum Sharron had invited him to explore, advised the Tarot Club to avoid Backlund’s East Borough around New Year, and explained ways to remove excess Beyonder Characteristics.
• Neph finished her warning paintings and sought front-page publication in the Backlund Morning Post, then asked Ouroboros about her advancement ritual and learned that her sacrifice at sea was connected to Tracy.
• Neph told Ouroboros where the Dice of Probability was, traveled to Bansy Harbor, and entered the Green Lemon Restaurant as a sharply featured Loen man arrived.