Chapter Summaries

Klein and Sharron recovered the mummy, and Klein arranged to travel to West Balam to prepare a military arms transaction. Neph questioned why Azik had not contacted her about the task involving Ludwell, leaving the reason unresolved.

• Klein, Sharron, and Maric helped Ais escape with the mummy while Reinette Tinekerr bought them time, and Neph later handed it over to Klein.
• Neph explained that Reinette Tinekerr's identity and the scarcity of high-sequence formulas should have alerted Klein to the Rose School connection.
• Klein met Councilman Macht and Colonel Galvin, delivered ten thousand pounds, and agreed to travel to West Balam before collecting the arms shipment.
• Danitz traveled in the Southern Continent with Anderson Hood, who teased him about the Plague Maiden and his former service to Gehrman.
• Neph asked Klein about Azik's absence and wondered whether her unfinished task concerning Ludwell depended on an agreement between her Lord and the sister she had never met.

Klein and Neph discussed Lovia, the coming war, and a bargain for help with his valet before Klein traveled toward Desi. On the airship, he encountered Daly, who admitted her feelings for Captain Dunn and flirted with Klein.

• Neph asked Klein to tell Little Sun to help Lovia, explaining that the Numinous Episcopate had been connected to the former Chief's failed advancement.
• Klein explored Calderón City and returned with the Spirit World Plunderer's true soul body; Neph advised him to buy grain and asked him to bring back a special ancestral skull drinking cup in exchange for helping with his valet.
• Klein boarded an airship bound for Desi and woke during the night to find Daly in the cabin.
• Daly said Klein's eyes reminded her of a friend, confessed she was in love with him, and complained about his conservative manner.
• Klein challenged Daly's flirtatious remarks by asking why she had not put her desires into action.

Colin Iliad weighed the Oracle’s arrival and the mushrooms’ effects, then questioned Derrick about the rituals he had performed while possessed by Amon. Derrick offered a theory about the Former Chief’s failed advancement and mausoleum, and Colin summoned Lovia after considering the Worms of Time.

• Colin Iliad observed that the newly introduced mushrooms had improved meals and lifted the City of Silver’s spirits, while Derrick’s account of the Oracle drew eager attention from residents.
• Colin pieced together Derrick’s and Lovia’s accounts and suspected that the Fool was behind the effort to help the City of Silver, possibly seeking faith as an anchor.
• Colin showed Derrick two Worms of Time left behind by Amon and asked him to recall the rituals he had performed while possessed.
• Derrick prayed to the Fool in private, then told Colin that the Former Chief’s failed advancement might not have been accidental and that the mausoleum could be connected to the outside world.
• Colin awarded Derrick additional merit points, considered his conjecture, and ordered someone to bring Lovia to him.

Neph told Klein that the True Creator had returned the Death God's Ring, while a mysterious man aboard the ship revealed himself as Medici in pursuit of Ince Zangwill. The chapter ended with mail mysteriously entering and being sorted inside an empty house at 7 Pinsters Street.

• Neph explained that the True Creator had bestowed the Death God's Ring back to her, and Klein agreed to write to Azik about it.
• A sharply dressed stranger arrived in the dining room, then a Flame Spear struck the ship and transformed into an Iron-Blooded Knight searching for Ince Zangwill.
• The Knight exposed an impostor who claimed someone had paid him to pose as Ince and travel toward the Southern Continent.
• Neph recognized Medici as the Knight and revealed that Ince Zangwill had been watching nearby while the impostor distracted his pursuer.
• Klein realized Medici was hunting Ince Zangwill, and Neph urged him to speak with his former colleagues.
• At 7 Pinsters Street, newspapers, bills, and letters entered the empty house and were sorted, read, or destroyed by unseen forces.

Neph and Klein encountered Ince Zangwill as he disembarked at Midway Island, and Neph hinted that Medici possessed him while offering Klein help with his revenge. Leonard learned that Medici was a King of Angels and that confronting Ince could be suicidal, leaving him to consider warning Klein against attacking.

• Neph searched the ship for Medici while Ince Zangwill questioned the spirit possessing him about avoiding her.
• Klein sent Leonard a letter with information about Ince Zangwill, while Colin Iliad recalled the battle in the mausoleum.
• Ince disembarked at Midway Island, and Klein told Neph he regretted being unable to kill him; Neph offered advice and a possible Worm of Time.
• Neph explained how her view of Klein had changed, then confirmed that Ince had provoked an evil spirit connected to the Hunter pathway.
• Pallez told Leonard that Ince was possessed by Medici, a former King of Angels, and warned him that he was far too weak to seek revenge.

Klein arrived in Gurain City, acquired a Winner as a marionette, and learned from Neph that Monster Beyonders risk death when they peer into his fate. Neph warned that contacting Amon could expose Klein to the gods’ schemes, so Klein decided to seek a Worm of Time elsewhere first.

• Klein reassured Leonard about the Kings of Angel by telling him vaguely that Neph could handle the matter, then arrived in Gurain City.
• Quinn learned that his sister Gillian was pregnant after she became ill from a fright, though Gillian did not know how she had conceived.
• Klein showed Neph his new Winner marionette, and she warned him that looking through its eyes could make it divine Klein and the Fool.
• Neph explained that Monster Beyonders’ fate-seeing grows faster than their resistance, and Klein connected their survival to luck.
• Neph described the danger of her Sequence 3 ritual and warned that praying to Amon could let him trace her connection to Klein.
• Klein said he would look for a Worm of Time elsewhere rather than risk becoming a bargaining chip in dealings among the gods.

Klein investigated a traditional bone wine cup while Neph was recognized as the Death God's Oracle by the Numinous Episcopate. Neph promised to resolve the group's conflict with the Church of Evernight by speaking to its leader, leaving Palenque Tasibu stunned by her claim that she knew the Evernight Goddess.

• Klein learned that West Balam families sometimes made wine cups from their deceased relatives' skulls, but he had no reason to travel there yet.
• Emlyn told Klein that Alex had appeared at another gathering unharmed and planned to report him to the Church of Steam and Machinery.
• Palenque Tasibu received a message naming Neph as the Death God's envoy and sent the Numinous Episcopate's members to find her.
• A girl from the Numinous Episcopate found Neph, who retrieved the Black Square Ring and met Palenque Tasibu, introducing herself as Pure White Walker, or Pure White.
• Neph learned that the Church of Evernight was investigating the Numinous Episcopate and offered to speak to its leader instead of attacking.
• Neph said she had a special connection with the Evernight Goddess and that they knew each other, leaving Palenque Tasibu bewildered.

Neph secured a map from Palenque Tasibu and went to the Silent Church to meet the local Red Gloves captain. She identified herself as a blessed of the Goddess and revealed that she controlled the Numinous Episcopate base where Palenque Tasibu was stationed.

• Neph asked Palenque Tasibu for the Church of Evernight's base location and a Southern Continent travel guide, then learned Ince Zangwill and the possessed demigod had not contacted the Numinous Episcopate.
• Neph considered why the True Creator might have intended to send someone else to Palenque Tasibu, then decided to inform Klein about the possibility.
• Neph entered the Silent Church's Confessional and jokingly claimed she had fallen in love with her late mother's former lover before asking to see the bishop.
• Neph confessed that she was really seeking the local Red Gloves captain, and the bishop arranged for her to meet Soest and Daly Simone.
• Neph told Soest and Daly that she controlled Palenque Tasibu's Numinous Episcopate base and presented Arianna's medallion as proof of her connection to an angel.
• Soest recognized Neph as the woman from the Church's files, but Neph rejected the surname Dumbledore and said only that she controlled Palenque Tasibu's base for now.

Neph negotiated with the Church of Evernight’s Red Gloves and gave the Numinous Episcopate new instructions in the True Creator’s name. After Palenque Tasibu questioned her identity and then accepted her authority, Neph demanded details about the Episcopate’s factions, believers, and bases.

• Neph gave Soest and Daly a prayer ritual, honorific name, and symbol, prompting Soest to report her apparent divine status to the Holy Cathedral.
• After eating, Neph told Palenque Tasibu that the Red Gloves would suspend their actions against the Numinous Episcopate while awaiting orders from their superiors.
• Neph ordered Palenque Tasibu to suspend the artificial god of death project and to prioritize the Lord’s will over disagreements within the Episcopate.
• After hearing about the Episcopate’s bloody activities, Neph condemned its followers for straying from the path and asked Palenque Tasibu to explain its other factions.
• Palenque Tasibu suspected Neph was an impostor connected to the surviving Death God, but Neph intimidated him, announced new commandments, and won his devout acceptance.
• Neph told Palenque Tasibu not to use the inverted cross publicly and pressed him to reveal specific believers, bases, and details about the Episcopate’s other factions.

Neph acted as the Numinous Episcopate’s Oracle and learned about its factions before asking the Death God for guidance. The ritual instructed them to unite the Episcopate, but Neph admitted she could not defeat its Angel leader, Haiter, and told Palenque Tasibu to remain the Pale Hand.

• Palenque Tasibu apologized to Neph and explained the Numinous Episcopate’s factions, leaders, and resources.
• Neph rejected the corpse-based essential oil and asked for a different one before performing a ritual to seek the Death God’s guidance.
• The ritual produced the message, “Bring the Numinous Episcopate together.”
• Palenque Tasibu revealed that Haiter was an Angel who remained devoted to his ambitions, and Neph said she could not defeat him.
• Neph told Palenque Tasibu that the God of Winter was her mother and that the Lord had rescued her from her mother’s body.
• Palenque Tasibu knelt in shock, and Neph told him to keep serving as the Pale Hand and obtain a less pungent essential oil.

Neph told Klein about the Numinous Episcopate’s factions and planned to use Azik’s survival to destabilize the Royalist Faction, while Klein asked her to help track Ince Zangwill. They also discussed Klein’s potion ingredients and the difficulty of completing the required advancement ritual.

• Neph explained that the Pale Empress led the Royalist Faction and possessed the Death God’s Eye, then urged Klein to bring Azik to the Southern Continent and reveal that the Death God’s child was alive.
• Neph told Klein that the Numinous Episcopate’s Artificial Death God Faction had nearly created a rudimentary artificial god, and Klein suspected the True Creator had Grazed the Death God’s Uniqueness.
• Klein and Neph discussed how to reform the Numinous Episcopate, and Neph said she had adapted Klein’s Sea God’s Ten Commandments for its members.
• Klein told Neph about a new Beyonder gathering in Backlund organized by Madam L, and Neph joked that the Aurora Order there did not welcome men.
• Klein asked Neph to have the Numinous Episcopate watch for Ince Zangwill and said the City of Silver had obtained his final potion ingredient, but he still needed to finish digesting his potion.
• Neph told Klein that his ritual required drinking the potion during the final part of the drama, so it could not be postponed, and Klein realized he would need another drama for advancement.

Klein asked Azik and Neph to help him find Ince Zangwill, while Neph recruited Palenque Tasibu to watch for him. Neph then sought Marauder pathway Beyonder characteristics for Ais and discovered that Amon had appeared through Arrodes, claiming Adam had told him she might need help.

• Klein sent Azik a letter proposing that he lure Ince Zangwill to East Balam and mentioning Neph wanted to meet him.
• Daly confronted Leonard about his unusual behavior and his requests for files on Ince Zangwill and 0-08, then offered to help him.
• Neph gave Palenque Tasibu Ince Zangwill's wanted notice and asked the Numinous Episcopate to report sightings without searching for him.
• Neph considered obtaining Worms of Time from Ais but learned the rat lacked the Beyonder characteristics needed to split one off.
• Neph summoned Arrodes to locate Marauder pathway Beyonder characteristics and recognized Amon in one of the images.
• Amon told Neph that Adam had said she might need his help.

Amon visited Neph and asked why Adam did not favor him as a candidate for the Lord of the Mysteries. After Neph answered, Amon promised her ten thousand years in exchange, but said she would have to retrieve the years from a portrait in the Church of Steam and Machinery’s Holy Cathedral; he left her a Worm of Time and his recliner.

• Amon emerged from a mirror and offered Neph ten thousand years in exchange for an answer to why Adam did not choose him.
• Neph explained that Adam publicly said Amon lacked humanity, particularly courage and a willingness to sacrifice, and suggested Adam might not want to lose him to the Lord of the Mysteries’ awakening.
• Amon confirmed the reward but said Neph would have to retrieve it from his portrait, which Church of Steam and Machinery robbers had taken to their Holy Cathedral.
• Amon suggested Neph ask Adam to name her and offered to make her his blessed, but Neph rejected the offer.
• Amon vanished, leaving a Worm of Time and a recliner, and Neph searched the room to see whether he had stolen anything.

Neph witnessed Klein defeat Ince Zangwill and complete the final part of his story, then digested her Eternal Winter Priest potion. Ouroboros explained that to advance to Sequence 3, Neph had to cast off external things, relinquish her memories, and shed her body, becoming his child.

• Neph met Azik while wearing the Death God's Ring, and Adam and Ouroboros appeared as Ince Zangwill's quill drew the King of Angel to the scene.
• Ince Zangwill escaped the Corpse Cathedral, and Neph followed Ouroboros outside to watch Klein and his companions confront him.
• Klein arranged for Medici to leave with Ludwell, then killed Ince Zangwill; Neph copied Ince's memories and watched Adam retrieve the quill.
• Neph chose not to ask Ouroboros to save Daly, and Klein took on Dunn Smith's appearance to dance with her before drinking his potion.
• After digesting her potion, Neph asked Ouroboros about her Sequence 3 advancement ritual, and he told her to relinquish her memories and body to become his child.

Neph learned that Ouroboros could not see her future through the gray-white fog associated with the Fool, then received advice to make her existence more vivid. She found Klein and explained how the Celestial Worthy’s resurrection plans shaped his arrival, but the chapter ended before she finished.

• Ouroboros told Neph that a gray-white fog obscured her future and relayed the Lord’s advice to make her existence more vivid.
• Neph met Ilya, the Eye of the Goddess, and asked her to pass along a greeting to the Evernight Goddess.
• Neph visited Klein and reassured herself that he was coping with what he had discovered.
• Neph explained that the Celestial Worthy had prepared Klein, Emperor Roselle, and the Evernight Goddess as resurrection contingencies, and that the Evernight Goddess had diverted an Attendant of Mysteries characteristic to save Klein.
• Neph began considering why she still could not see potion formulas for Sequence 2 or above before the chapter content cut off.

Neph explained how the Celestial Worthy and God Almighty had been prevented from reviving, then speculated that Eternal Winter may have entered the world by dying first. Klein received his Sequence 3 potion formula and invited Neph back to the Tarot Club, while Audrey began counseling him; Neph ended by drinking her Pure White Walker potion.

• Klein asked Neph about God Almighty, and she explained that the approaching Apocalypse made the wills of the sleeping ancient beings less active.
• Neph wondered whether Eternal Winter had entered the world dead, then gave Klein the Sequence 3 potion formula, whose ritual required at least three hundred years apart from reality.
• Klein invited Neph to return to the Tarot Club, and Neph told him to speak with his former colleague about the club and the Marauder living inside him.
• Audrey met Gehrman Sparrow Above the Gray Fog and began soothing him after learning that he had been frightened and had spoken with Miss Pure White.
• Neph failed to uncover more information about her higher sequences in the Pure White Space and drank her Pure White Walker potion.

After advancing to Sequence 3, Neph learned that her next ritual required her to return within the kingdom of the Deceased God and discovered that the Great Old One she served was called the Deceased God. She sought out Klein to discuss the ominous title, then asked him to find her a genuine Rainbow Feather for her hat.

• Neph realized the Pure White Walker ritual made the world and its people remember her, and she discovered that her Pure White Space could store people and objects as memories.
• Neph found the door to a hidden collection room containing clues about her pathway’s missing Sequence 1 characteristic and Uniqueness, but she lacked the key and believed she would need to return within the Deceased God’s kingdom to advance.
• Neph discovered that the potions and formulas in the Pure White Space had been offered to the Great Old One by believers and blessed ones, along with their memories.
• Neph used the Memory Collection Hall to appear before Klein and told him the Great Old One’s title was Deceased God; they speculated that the apotheosis ritual might involve death.
• Klein offered Neph a white-feather hat ornament, and Neph asked for a genuine Rainbow Feather rather than a dyed one.

Leonard read a letter explaining the Tarot Club and learned disturbing hidden history, while Neph explored her new abilities and discussed using Death God descendants for a potion ritual. Klein searched for a feather to make a gift and met siblings who agreed to help if he promised to aid an animal in need; their exchange remained unresolved.

• Leonard read the letter’s descriptions of the Tarot Club members and hidden knowledge, then asked Pallez about the True Creator’s relationship with the Ancient Sun God.
• Pallez warned Leonard to listen and observe more while speaking less.
• Neph had Palenque Tasibu divine the white warlock’s hat, then explained her new authority over traces and discussed the Nightwatcher ritual using Death God descendants.
• Palenque Tasibu agreed to watch for information about the Royalist Faction while Neph waited for the Church of Evernight’s decision.
• Klein asked Gillian and Quinn to sell him a feather from their blue-green bird, and they asked him to promise to help a similar animal in need.

Klein learned that Gillian was pregnant with Will Auceptin and had asked him to help the child when danger came. He and Neph discussed fate, Neph’s origins and abilities, and ended with Neph explaining why she would never choose the Marauder Pathway.

• Neph told Klein to accept Gillian’s request while stating that he disliked birds injured fighting their own kind, and Gillian left him the birdcage.
• Neph revealed that Gillian was pregnant with Will Auceptin, who might need Klein’s help, and explained why Ouroboros might want him dead.
• Klein took the bird to a craftsman, then joined Neph at a restaurant, where she asked him to divine the bird’s origins and wondered what Frank had grown using her flesh and blood.
• Neph described how she might qualify as a Child of God, and Klein observed that her supposed lies had repeatedly become true.
• Klein and Neph considered whether Neph’s ability to make things true came from Amon’s Error or her own Memory pathway, and Neph said she would never take the Marauder Pathway because she could not fool people who already knew she was a con artist.

Neph sought Anderson Hood’s help in persuading Danitz to become a woman, giving Anderson the Iron-Blooded Knight potion formula. Meanwhile, Klein arrived in Cookawa City to meet General Mesangers about an arms deal, and the chapter ended as Mesangers descended to greet him.

• Klein told Neph that Danitz and Anderson Hood were together in Cookawa City, and Neph went to find them.
• Neph sent Danitz outside and told Anderson that Edwina liked women, then revealed she knew he possessed the Iron-Blooded Knight potion formula.
• Neph placed the Iron-Blooded Knight formula in Anderson’s mind and disappeared before he could respond.
• Klein, disguised as Dwayne Dantès, arrived at General Mesangers’s residence and was received by Haggis.
• Mesangers descended the staircase as Klein waited in the general’s residence.