Chapter Summaries

Neph asked Klein to help choose a new angel title, but neither of them found one they liked. At Klein’s banquet, he met Aaron Ceres’s wife Velma Gladys and suspected she had recently suffered a miscarriage; afterward, he told Neph about it.

• Neph explained that her Lord had prompted her to choose a new title, and she asked Klein for suggestions.
• Klein proposed several titles, but Neph rejected them and decided to think of one later.
• Klein teased Neph with an invitation to his ball and revealed that he had invited Aaron Ceres.
• At the ball, Klein met Aaron’s wife, Velma Gladys, and noticed her pallor and melancholy.
• After the banquet, Klein contacted Neph, shared a late-night meal with her, and said he suspected Velma had suffered a miscarriage.

Klein met with Sharron and Maric to discuss a planned expedition, bringing Ais the rat, Neph’s supposed pet and a demigod of the Marauder pathway. Sharron revealed that they wanted to obtain an ancient king’s mummy from a ship arriving in Pritz Harbor, but the exact date and their reason for needing it remained unclear.

• Neph declined to join Klein’s meeting with Sharron and Maric, sending Ais the rat in her place and assuring Klein that Ais was safe.
• Klein used Ais to travel to Iron Gate Street, changed into Sherlock Moriarty, and entered the Bravehearts Bar with Seniors and Ludwell.
• Klein met Sharron and Maric in a billiards room, where Sharron explained that Maric could not advance because of his condition.
• Sharron told Klein that a ship carrying plundered treasure and cultural relics would arrive at Pritz Harbor in mid-June with the mummy of Tutanssess II, and that obtaining it was their objective.
• Klein asked for a more precise arrival date, but Sharron said they had not yet obtained one.

Klein learned that the mummy of Tutanssess II could draw the Rose School, the Loen Military, and possibly demigods or angels into a conflict, so Sharron chose to gather more information before deciding whether to steal it. Neph explained the Rose School’s history and the Chained God’s connection to the Mother Tree of Desire, leaving Klein stunned to learn that his messenger was a Sequence 2 Ancient Bane.

• Maric warned that the mummy might be a trap set by the Rose School, and Klein told Sharron that Neph had shown interest because of the school.
• Sharron explained that Tutanssess II’s mummy had been found at a Highland Resistance base and that the demigod Mahames, a Rose School member and Suah’s student, might try to reclaim it.
• Klein prayed to Neph, who admitted she could not rule out Suah, another angel, or a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact becoming involved, and sent Ais the rat as a potential thief.
• Sharron decided to collect more clues and abandon the plan if an angel or a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact was involved.
• Neph told Klein that Abomination was Sequence 1, revealed that his messenger was a Sequence 2 Ancient Bane, and described the Chained God as a slave to the Mother Tree of Desire.

Klein and Neph discussed the Mother Tree of Desire, his plans to steal a mummy, and a safer acting opportunity at Saint Samuel Church. After Danitz offered gold coins to the Fool, Neph suggested inviting him to the Tarot Club, where he drew the Empress card and was told when to attend.

• Neph explained that the child was the process of the Mother Tree of Desire's corruption and said she feared gaining the Primordial Moon as an extra mother.
• Klein considered stealing a mummy for an acting opportunity, while Neph suggested he sneak into Saint Samuel Church's basement instead; Klein decided to gather more information before choosing.
• Klein told Neph that Danitz had prayed to the Fool and offered several hundred pounds in gold coins as a sacrifice, prompting Neph to suggest rewarding him with a Tarot Club invitation.
• Klein summoned Danitz to Sefirah Castle and offered him a choice of unclaimed Tarot cards; Danitz picked the Empress.
• Klein told Danitz to be alone every Monday at three in the afternoon, Backlund time, and then ended their connection.

Klein sought Leonard’s help to obtain the Chanis Gate guard schedule so he could enter its underground area and leave a message, while Neph proved her connection to the Church’s angels with Arianna’s token. Leonard agreed to assist only if he accompanied Klein, and the group parted after discussing Hazel Macht and the next Tarot Club gathering.

• Leonard met Klein and Neph at the Bravehearts Bar, where Neph compared Amon’s Worms of Time to maggots and revealed Arianna had given her an angel’s token.
• Klein asked Leonard for the Chanis Gate shift schedule so he could enter its underground area and leave safely after writing a message there.
• Leonard agreed to provide the schedule only if he accompanied Klein, while Neph refused to go beneath Saint Samuel Church.
• Leonard told Neph that Hazel Macht had become a Sequence 8 Swindler and was being sent to a Church school to learn about the Beyonder world.
• Klein invited Neph to hear about Danitz’s debut as Mr. Empress after the Tarot Club gathering, and she agreed.

Danitz joined the Tarot Club as Mr. Empress and learned that Neph was known there as Miss Pure White. Klein asked Arrodes how to get past the Sealing Core behind the Chanis Gate and was told to seek Bernadette’s help, while Neph teased him about rumors concerning his preferences.

• Klein introduced Danitz as the Tarot Club’s new member, and Danitz asked Audrey about the absent Miss Pure White.
• The World told Danitz to ask Neph himself, while Alger and Cattleya recognized him as the pirate Danitz, the Flame.
• Klein asked Arrodes how to disguise himself from the Sealing Core, and Arrodes said he would need to let a marionette be eroded and seek Bernadette’s help.
• Arrodes asked how to treat Neph if she summoned it, and Klein told it to treat her as it treated him.
• Neph watched Danitz’s debut, then mocked Klein by warning that rumors might claim he shared her supposed taste for mothers and daughters.

Klein joined the East Balam Veteran Officers Club and learned that Colonel Galvin wanted him to sell retired weapons in West Balam to tribes and the Resistance. He considered asking Bernadette to help, while Neph questioned whether the Savant Pathway was feminine-leaning.

• Neph summoned Bernadette, who agreed to travel to Backlund within a week and asked when she could prepare to visit the island.
• Klein asked Neph about West Balam and explained that he planned to sell arms there.
• Klein joined the East Balam Veteran Officers Club with Councilman Macht as his sponsor and met Colonel Galvin.
• Galvin offered Klein a profitable but dangerous deal to sell retired guns and cannons in West Balam to tribes and the Resistance.
• Klein suggested Bernadette could help with the plan, and Neph questioned whether the Savant Pathway leaned toward the feminine.

Neph teased Klein with outrageous rumors about Emperor Roselle and the God of Steam and Machinery before advising him to confess if he pursued an arms deal in West Balam. Klein commissioned Danitz and Cattleya to gather information, while Danitz realized that Gehrman Sparrow was the World and tried to hide his discovery from Anderson Hood.

• Neph joked that the Savant pathway and Emperor Roselle’s estrangement from the God of Steam and Machinery involved femininity, prompting Klein to warn her that the gods could hear them.
• Neph advised Klein to confess to a church if he decided to sell arms in West Balam, then wondered whether she had a talent for being a Hunter because she considered confessing to several outrageous acts.
• The next morning, Klein commissioned Danitz and Cattleya to find information about West Balam within a week, while Neph went to enjoy her club.
• Aboard the Golden Dream, Danitz heard Gehrman Sparrow’s request through the gray fog and realized that the World was Gehrman Sparrow.
• Danitz tried to conceal his discovery by asking Anderson about West Balam, but Anderson teased him about becoming a Head Maid, and Danitz retorted that Anderson would make a perfect one.

At a Sanguine gathering, Emlyn met Alex, a descendant of Duke Olmer who spoke strangely about the Ancestor as Mother and the moon. After Klein and Neph identified Alex as likely connected to the Primordial Moon, Emlyn sought advice from the Tarot Club, while Neph revealed she had stolen cards and guns from a club.

• Emlyn attended Cosmi Odora’s gathering and met Alex, a direct descendant of Duke Olmer.
• Alex spoke proudly to Emlyn about worshipping Mother and described the Ancestor as Mother and the moon, leaving Emlyn suspicious.
• Emlyn prayed to the Fool and recounted his encounter; Klein recognized the signs of a false divine oracle and sent the scene to Neph.
• Neph concluded that Alex was likely a believer of the Primordial Moon and told Klein to warn Emlyn to stay away from him.
• Klein relayed Neph’s warning, and Emlyn asked the Fool to invite several Tarot Club members to a small discussion for advice.
• Neph told Klein she had stolen playing cards, handguns, and bullets from the East Balam Veteran Officers Club.

Neph visited Klein while he faced police questioning over Caron’s suicide, then accompanied him as Baron Syndras secured his release and explained the smear campaign he had planned. Neph secretly followed the baron’s party and left with his wine, while the baron became confused about what he had told his servants.

• Neph told Klein she had infiltrated the club and wanted to leave evidence behind, then hid in the room where Fors and Xio were listening to the police interview.
• The police accused Klein of driving Caron to suicide, and Klein instructed Walter to warn Baron Syndras before agreeing to go to the station and wait for his lawyer.
• Fors recognized Neph as Miss Pure White, and she and Xio followed Klein while Neph stayed behind.
• Baron Syndras paid Klein’s bail, rode with him, and revealed that he had planned to ruin Klein’s reputation with false accusations.
• Neph secretly entered Baron Syndras’s carriage, drank some wine, and disappeared before he returned to it.
• Baron Syndras asked his valet to open wine he believed he had ordered, but the valet denied it and then nervously apologized.

Klein suspected that Baron Syndras and Karon had been drawn into a larger scheme involving the Coyem Company shares, and decided to donate Dwayne Dantès’s shares to the Church of Evernight to protect his position. Meanwhile, Neph arranged to host Emlyn’s discussion in the Pure White Space, and Xio investigated a strange disturbance in Walter’s room before spotting a rat carrying cake.

• Neph offered to host Emlyn’s discussion in the Pure White Space disguised as Sefirah Castle, and Klein agreed after warning her not to cause trouble.
• Neph left Ais the rat behind and instructed him to act suspiciously around Fors and Xio.
• Klein reasoned that Baron Syndras had been baited into a scheme involving Karon’s shares and Dwayne Dantès, and decided to donate the shares to the Church of Evernight.
• Xio sensed black magic on the first floor, entered the hallway outside Walter’s room, and found that the disturbance had vanished while someone inside still breathed.
• Xio turned to return upstairs and saw a white rat carrying an enormous piece of cake.

Xio and Fors discovered more signs of mysticism among Dwayne Dantès's household, while Neph impersonated the Fool and staged the collapse of the Tarot Club's palace. The meeting ended with the participants returned to the real world, and Klein summoned Neph to confront her.

• Xio found that a suspicious white rat could make the cake vanish and reappear in her hand, and she and Fors decided to keep watching Dwayne Dantès's household.
• Fors told Xio that Dwayne Dantès's valet Richardson prayed to the Death God, adding another secret mystic to the household.
• Neph summoned Emlyn, Alger, Audrey, Cattleya, and Gehrman Sparrow to the Pure White Space, where Emlyn asked how to deal with a Sanguine who worshipped the Primordial Moon.
• The gathering discussed reporting the Sanguine to a church, then Neph shook and collapsed the palace while impersonating the Fool.
• After the participants returned to the real world, Klein went to Sefirah Castle, summoned Neph, and asked if the destruction had been her idea.

Klein confronted Neph about her prank staging the Fool’s fall, then continued his arms-dealing plans with Galvin. After Neph mentioned Viscount Stratford and a letter from Klein’s bodyguards revealed unsettling secrets about his household, the story left Klein with new mysteries to investigate.

• Klein summoned the Tarot Club and explained that Neph had staged the Fool’s fall as a play, then warned her not to repeat the prank.
• Neph said she had learned her mischievous ways from Klein and compared him to Amon and the owner of Castle Sefirah.
• Alger, Cattleya, and Audrey reflected on the Fool’s lenient treatment of Neph and the special place she held with him.
• Klein met Councilman Macht and Colonel Galvin, agreeing to pay fifteen thousand pounds for a small arms shipment intended for sale in West Balam.
• Neph asked Klein whether he had met Viscount Stratford and hinted that the Loen king’s secret depended on a large population.
• Klein read a letter from his bodyguards alleging that his butler studied black magic, his valet worshipped the Death God, and supernatural rats lived in his home.

Klein met Bernadette and asked her to make one of his marionettes appear corrupted by the Evernight pathway so he could use it in his plan. Neph helped extend the marionette’s usable lifespan, then warned Klein about the Horn of Slumber’s dangerous music and revealed that the Death God had entered eternal slumber.

• Emlyn was startled when Alex visited the Harvest Church and claimed he had come to experience the joy of the harvest.
• Klein left an illusion in the washroom, changed into Gehrman Sparrow, and traveled to meet Neph and Bernadette.
• Klein asked Bernadette to corrupt the Wraith Seniors as if they had been exposed to the sealing core behind a diocesan Evernight cathedral’s Chanis Gate.
• Bernadette warned that the corruption would eventually destroy the marionette, but Neph offered to extend its lifespan until Klein became a demigod.
• Bernadette summoned the Horn of Slumber, and Neph pulled Klein away before its music could lull him into a true slumber.
• Neph explained that Sequence 0 of the Death God pathway was Eternal Sleeper and said the Death God had already entered eternal slumber.

Klein intervened when Alex, a boon recipient serving the Primordial Moon, met with Emlyn and Bishop Utravsky at the Harvest Church. Neph took Alex’s charred doll away and explained the danger of boon recipients, leaving Emlyn and Utravsky to consider what had happened.

• Emlyn discovered Alex discussing a desire to receive a boon that would let him carry a child, while Bishop Utravsky questioned Alex about his interest in Emlyn.
• Klein learned Alex was at the Harvest Church and warned Neph; she urged him to have Emlyn clear the church before Alex revealed too much to Utravsky.
• After the worshippers left, Utravsky armed himself with Dawn Armor and a greatsword, and Klein struck Alex with lightning, leaving a charred wooden doll in his place.
• Neph arrived, identified Alex as likely an Attendant of Grace, and warned Emlyn not to trust oracles blindly; Utravsky handed her the doll.
• Neph examined Utravsky’s memories and concluded Alex had been a Sower and boon recipient, then left with the doll; Utravsky explained that he trusted her because Emlyn trusted her and she was powerful enough not to need deception.

Neph investigated the charred puppet and concluded that it revealed limits on how the Mother Goddess of Depravity and the Mother Tree of Desire could bestow boons. Klein infiltrated the Chanis Gate and returned safely, then learned that the angel he had seen during the Great Smog was the Evernight Goddess's Divine Descent Vessel.

• Neph used Spirit Vision to examine the charred puppet, then later viewed its past and recognized a ritual involving Full Moon Puppets.
• Neph warned Klein that he could ask the Evernight Goddess for help if he encountered danger and advised that he no longer needed the Antigonus Notebook.
• Klein infiltrated the Chanis Gate, left a Fool Card and a World Card near the entrance, and waited without going deeper.
• Klein returned to Neph with a half-dead pirate, and Neph fled the room while he disposed of the corpse.
• Neph told Klein that the angel he had seen during the Great Smog was the Evernight Goddess's Divine Descent Vessel kept beneath Saint Samuel Cathedral.

Klein revealed that Dwayne Dantès was an identity he shared with Neph, prompting Audrey and Fors to connect the secret to scandalous rumors about Neph. He also learned that the Church of Evernight had ended its investigation into the Chanis Gate intrusion, while Leonard left with new questions about Neph’s faith.

• Audrey commissioned an investigation into Dwayne Dantès, and Klein admitted that he and Neph sometimes used that identity.
• Klein told the Tarot Club that Neph had a white rat and directed Audrey to ask Neph about the rumors surrounding Dwayne Dantès, leaving Audrey stunned by what she inferred.
• Fors recognized the rumor Audrey meant and hurried to write her overdue manuscript, while Neph warned Klein that Alger, Cattleya, and possibly Danitz could investigate further.
• Leonard told Klein that the Church had found only two tarot cards behind the Chanis Gate and had stopped investigating on Arianna’s orders.
• Klein told Leonard that Neph regarded the Goddess as her elder sister and that her relationship with the Fool was like that of a junior, teacher, and friend.
• Leonard asked Pallez what Neph’s name Pure White meant and learned that Pallez was surprised by the question.

Klein learned that the planned mummy theft would involve an angel or a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact, so he prepared to use Neph’s rat for the dangerous task. When Ian revealed that Amon had arrived in Backlund looking for Neph, she warned Klein and Leonard to leave, then said she would pray to Amon.

• Maric told Klein that the mummy would be moved in three days, and Arrodes confirmed that an angel or a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact was involved.
• Klein and Neph decided to have Neph’s rat take the most dangerous role in stealing the mummy, and Klein warned her that Amon had come looking for her.
• Ian told Klein that a black-haired man wearing a Crystal Monocle had been searching for Pure White, and Neph concluded that it was Amon.
• Neph advised Klein to leave for the Southern Continent after the mummy theft and told him to warn Leonard that Amon was in Backlund.
• Leonard received Klein’s letter and asked Pallez what to do; Pallez said Amon was likely an avatar and urged Leonard to leave Backlund.

Amon visited Neph, reclaimed Ais, and questioned her about Adam’s plans for the Lord of the Mysteries. He left Neph alarmed by his suspicion that Adam intended to make him a stepping stone, while keeping his plans to tell Medici a secret until Adam and his other half merged.

• Amon returned Ais to Neph, then joined her for a meal and took a Sequence 4 Black Glove from a departing man, consuming the Worm of Time inside it.
• Amon asked Neph how she had found Ais and learned that the rat had originally been Flora Jacob, whom Neph had transformed by accident.
• Amon asked whether Neph had met his other half a father and pressed her to say whom Adam favored as Lord of the Mysteries.
• Amon said he feared Adam intended to use him as a stepping stone, like Medici, and considered telling Medici that Adam had betrayed him.
• Amon assured Neph that Medici would not learn of his other half a father until the two halves merged, then questioned her about why humans valued a liar’s sincere feelings.

Neph negotiated with Amon for time inside a strange travelogue, but they did not reach a deal. After reporting their conversation to the True Creator and Klein, Neph learned Amon was considering a new instruction for Parasites that would make them fully inhabit the lives of their hosts.

• Amon told Neph that he could not provide ten thousand years without consulting his main body, then asked what she would offer in exchange.
• Amon proposed that Neph help him find a missing Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristic, and Neph hesitated over revealing Pallez's location.
• Neph left the restaurant, reported her conversation to the True Creator, and entered the Pure White Space to ask Klein to check for Worms of Time.
• After Klein confirmed Neph had no Worms of Time on her, she told him what had happened.
• Amon discussed with a raven adding an instruction that Parasites should forget their past and devote themselves to living as their hosts.