Chapter Summaries

Neph directed Klein toward the Fog Sea to search for the lost Newins civilization, while Laila’s uncanny perception made Klein understand Neph’s warning about her. At the Tarot Club, Cattleya shared Roselle’s Diary, the members learned Neph was a Child of God, and Klein commissioned Emlyn to contact Leonard Mitchell before the gathering turned to the Sanguine pathway.

• Neph told Klein to search the Fog Sea for clues to the lost Newins civilization and warned him to be careful around Laila.
• Klein ordered the crew to sail toward the Fog Sea, and Laila remarked that he looked prettier than before.
• Cattleya presented three pages of Roselle’s Diary, and Klein suggested asking Neph about Roselle’s later madness because her mother held authority over forgotten history.
• The Tarot Club members realized Neph was a Child of God, and Cattleya declined to hand over the original diary without its owner’s permission.
• Klein commissioned Emlyn to visit Leonard Mitchell in Backlund and ask about items that could steal Beyonder abilities.
• Cattleya explained the Sanguine sequence and Acting Method, and Neph revealed that Sequence 1 of the Moon pathway was Goddess of Beauty.

Klein wavered over whether to return to his family’s lives as Klein Moretti, while Neph warned him about George III’s secret and helped him consider the risks. Their conversation then turned to Will Auceptin’s paper crane, Ouroboros, and a Monocle Klein had placed in a coffin.

• Audrey reported that the second round of the government employee examination had ended, prompting Klein to reconsider Neph’s plan to reconnect with Benson and Melissa as Klein Moretti.
• Klein asked Neph whether George III’s secret was tied to his ideal, and she warned that accepted common sense could change while withholding the details of his plan.
• Klein gave Neph half of Helene’s thousand-pound bounty and told her Leonard wanted seven thousand pounds for a mystical item that could steal Beyonder abilities.
• Klein told Neph he had found Will Auceptin’s paper crane, and she explained that she knew where Will was if he had not rebooted and advised Klein not to pray to him or use the crane to bargain with Ouroboros.
• Neph asked whether Klein had placed a Monocle in his coffin, and he confirmed that he had.

Neph obtained Frank’s wine-blood fish and shared them with Klein, who passed the remaining fish to Bartley and Laila. Neph then warned Klein that a King of Angel might be shaping the familiar era and could spy on anyone who spoke about him, while the crew prepared to dock near Tiana.

• Neph asked Laila what she planned to do after the voyage, and Laila said she might stop being a pirate.
• Neph messaged Frank for food and received five fish whose blood tasted like red wine.
• Neph brought a fish to Klein to test, and they discussed Frank’s experiments and the danger of speaking about a King of Angel who might watch them.
• Klein gave two frozen fish to Bartley and Laila, then announced the crew would replenish supplies near Tiana.
• Laila eagerly accepted Bartley’s fish, while Klein remained uneasy about her behavior.
• Klein thanked Frank for the fish and asked whether he had finished digesting his Biologist potion.

Neph docked at Tiana’s harbor with Klein’s ship, while Leonard investigated Sherlock Moriarty’s connections through Daisy and Old Kohler. At the Tarot Club, Cattleya asked Neph for Mythical Creature blood, and Neph began asking what kind she needed.

• Neph went ashore alone at Tiana’s harbor while the Black Death remained close enough to escape if danger arose.
• A black-haired, green-eyed officer questioned Daisy in a dream about the Capim Case, and she described Sherlock Moriarty’s help before the officer learned Old Kohler’s whereabouts from Liv.
• Leonard reviewed his investigation into Emlyn White and connected him to Sherlock Moriarty, whose name also appeared in several case files.
• Neph received Frank’s flavored potatoes and found that plants removed from her Pure White Space turned to ash unless kept frozen.
• At the Tarot Club, Cattleya bought Mithor King’s Beyonder Characteristic, then asked Neph whether she could obtain Mythical Creature blood.
• Neph asked Cattleya whether an Angel’s blood would suffice and which Pathway’s blood she preferred.

At the Tarot Club, Neph discussed a protective bracelet with Audrey and explained that the City of Silver would need to wait for the right moment to leave the Forsaken Land of the Gods. The gathering ended with Cattleya asking about Amon’s origins and Audrey wondering who the other Son of the Creator was.

• Neph offered Audrey a Guardian bracelet for 15,000 pounds, and Audrey said she would consider buying it for her family.
• Derrick reported that Lovia had been released and that the Chief had returned to the City of Silver; Neph said leaving the Forsaken Land required opening a great door in the Giant King’s Court.
• Neph warned Derrick that he could not reach the door and said they had to wait for the tide of the times before the City of Silver could leave.
• Alger and Neph advised Derrick that the Chief’s distrust of the Fool could make Derrick safer, and Alger told him to seek information without directly asking for the Druid potion formula.
• Cattleya asked about Amon’s origins, and Neph said Amon’s father was still alive but refused to explain further; Audrey asked who the other Son of the Creator was.

Neph warned the Tarot Club about Adam, then told Klein that she had sensed their destination in a recurring snowy dream. As the Black Death approached it, Neph prepared charms for their planned dive into the sea, and she and Klein joked about the materials and names they used.

• Klein warned the Tarot Club not to mention Adam, explaining that whatever was spoken would be known, then later told Neph that Roselle had seen the same fog he had.
• After the Tarot Club sailed into the Fog Sea, Neph dreamed of a snowy place with distant buildings and used the sensation to mark their destination on a sea chart.
• Neph heard a repeated whisper in the dream, while Cattleya later reported that Bernadette would let them read Roselle’s diary at the Emerald City on Lasha Island.
• On February 28, 1350, Neph woke Klein and proposed that they jump into the sea, explaining that they needed to safeguard their memories and use charms.
• Neph and Klein discussed charm materials, and Neph teased him by recommending antimony because its symbol, Sb, resembled the word for “fool.”

Neph and Klein descended through the Memory Corridor, recovering Klein’s memories as they crossed frozen scenes from his past. They reached a strange modern library where Neph sacrificed a white-haired woman, but the library began rapidly decaying before Neph could understand what the ritual had done.

• Neph and Klein discovered that the Black Death had entered the first layer of the Memory Corridor, and Laila jumped overboard after sensing a call from the sea.
• Neph explained that only Klein’s memories were in the corridor, and she followed him into the sea to descend to the next layer.
• Neph restored Klein’s memories in his Backlund home, then led him by steam train through further scenes, including the Blackthorn Security Company, until they reached a white corridor.
• Neph and Klein entered a modern library, where Neph sensed that a white-haired woman was near death and identified her as the sacrifice she needed.
• Neph performed the sacrifice in the Pure White Space, where the woman’s phantom entered the sacrificial passage and left Neph a page of white ashes.
• Neph returned to the Real World and saw the modern library decaying at an astonishing speed.

Neph returned from the Library and advanced to Sequence 4, becoming an Eternal Winter Priest. After testing her new powers and the Pure White Space, she reunited with Klein, who told her their second mate was missing.

• Neph used the silvery-white scale to return with Klein to the Black Death, then recorded Mi Ai's history as the Library's keeper.
• Neph advanced to Eternal Winter Priest and discovered that her hair had turned white, her eyes had changed, and her control over cold and presence had grown stronger.
• Neph found that the Pure White Space's snowflakes were under her control and that she could enjoy food there without becoming hungrier.
• Neph summoned Cattleya to test the Pure White Space, addressed her as Your Grace, and explained that she spoke the language from Emperor Roselle's diary.
• Neph returned to Klein and proposed going to Lasha Island, but Klein told her that their second mate was missing.

Neph’s advancement to demigodhood kept her from entering Sefirah Castle, prompting her to consider leaving the Tarot Club as the balance between her and Klein changed. After departing the ship, she used her new ability to reach Lasha Island and found the entrance to Emerald City.

• Klein and Neph discussed her birthday, a bizarre chocolate-noodle dish, and Frank’s failed attempt to crossbreed pounds with trees.
• At the Tarot Club, Klein discovered he could no longer bring Neph into Sefirah Castle, while Cattleya suspected Neph had become a god.
• Neph told Klein she might leave the Tarot Club because she had little need for its resources and two gods could not remain on equal footing in the same gathering.
• Neph privately worried that the True Creator might resent her growing closeness to Klein, then joked about divine history and her predecessors.
• When the Black Death reached Lasha Island, Neph practiced using her new ability to travel across the sea and reached the island.
• Neph followed Cattleya’s map and recited an incantation at a cliff, opening the path to Emerald City.

Neph visited Bernadette at her castle and explained part of the truth behind Roselle’s madness and failed resurrection. She offered to teach Bernadette the language of his diary once Bernadette became an angel, leaving Bernadette with a more forgiving understanding of her father.

• Bernadette escorted Neph into the castle after Neph solved the Sphinx’s riddle, and Neph recognized the golem’s face as Roselle’s.
• Bernadette showed Neph Roselle’s diary, and Neph used her ability to obtain memories from it before offering to answer questions about her father.
• Neph offered to teach Bernadette the diary’s language after she became an angel and explained that Roselle’s search for his homeland led him to gaze at the crimson moon.
• Neph revealed that Roselle became a Knowledge Emperor and then chose the Black Emperor pathway, planning to die and resurrect to remove corruption, but his mausoleums were destroyed or bathed in moonlight.
• Neph told Bernadette that Roselle was not completely dead and might be saved, though doing so would require strength they would not have for a long time.
• Bernadette said she still disliked Roselle’s later actions but found it easier to accept them knowing he had been corrupted, and felt he had never changed at his core.

Neph met Bernadette, warned her about the dangers surrounding Roselle’s mausoleum, and arranged to buy the Druid potion formula. After transmitting Roselle’s Diary to Klein, Neph discussed his future as a Demigod and the need for anchors, leaving them to work out what Klein would tell Melissa and Benson.

• Neph told Bernadette that Roselle was fighting corruption and that his final mausoleum lay on a dangerous, unnamed island, then advised her to find clues through his companions’ descendants and not explore alone.
• Bernadette agreed to spread Neph’s name through the Dawn of Elements, and Neph explained her ties to the True Creator while asking Bernadette to keep that faith unmentioned for now.
• Bernadette offered the Druid potion formula for five thousand pounds, and Neph agreed to consult the buyer while explaining that Frank wanted it to advance his research.
• Neph warned Bernadette that a major Backlund event concerned Roselle but postponed explaining it until Bernadette found the island’s coordinates.
• Neph transmitted Roselle’s Diary to Klein, reported Bernadette’s offer, and explained that Klein would need anchors to resist divinity’s corruption after becoming a Demigod.
• Klein and Neph discussed how he should explain his absence and the bereavement payment to Melissa and Benson, and Neph reminded him that he had deciphered information from Roselle’s Diary.

Klein returned to Backlund with Neph, arranged to see Benson and Melissa, and reunited with his siblings after Neph altered their memories. Neph left to seek Frank and investigate her next steps, while Klein stayed in Backlund with his family.

• Klein removed Neph's chair from the Tarot Club and told its members that Miss Pure White would be absent and could be contacted through Mr. World.
• Klein finished digesting his Faceless potion, then disguised himself as Tracy and killed the Black Death's first mate before jumping into the sea with Katarina Pelle; he and Neph collected the bounties and returned to Backlund.
• Neph altered Benson and Melissa's memories and left Klein at their home, while Klein planned to stay in Backlund, see old friends, and collect his bicycle dividends.
• Cattleya told Frank that someone had found the Druid potion formula for five thousand pounds, and Frank eagerly prepared to raise the money.
• Neph considered how to act as an Eternal Winter Priest and decided to seek advice from a priest in Moon City or Medici.
• Klein reunited with Benson and Melissa, told them he would stay for at least a week, and agreed to celebrate Benson's new government position at a restaurant.

Neph informed Medici that the Demoness Sect had the Conqueror Beyonder characteristic and discussed his origins and her unusual knowledge. Afterward, she answered Klein’s questions about Worms of Time, his advancement ritual, and the investigation into Sherlock Moriarty.

• Archbishop Horamick told Ikanser Bernard to keep watching key places after Sherlock Moriarty disappeared, then wrote to the Holy Cathedral.
• Randall Valentinus compared reports about Katarina Pelle, Gehrman Sparrow, and Sherlock Moriarty, and suspected the Katarina with Gehrman had been an impostor.
• Neph summoned Medici, told him the Conqueror characteristic was with Clarice, and learned he knew she was Above the Sequence.
• Neph used Spirit Vision to see three heads in Medici’s Astral Body and privately considered whether the extra consciousnesses could be erased.
• Neph answered Klein’s prayer, advising him how to obtain Worms of Time, arrange his advancement ritual, and handle the investigation and dividends.

After Klein advanced to Sequence 5, Neph warned him about Ince Zangwill and gave him the Bizarro Sorcerer potion formula, tying his next advancement to killing a demigod during a grand drama. Their discussion also revealed that the Tyrant card and the Ocean Songster formula had been left for Klein, while Neph denied that the Evernight Goddess had planned the tragedies that shaped his life.

• Klein advanced to Sequence 5, and Neph congratulated him before warning that Ince Zangwill was likely in Backlund and carried the dangerous Sealed Artifact 0-08.
• Neph gave Klein the Sequence 4 Bizarro Sorcerer formula, whose ritual required him to orchestrate a grand drama and kill a demigod or equivalent creature.
• Neph told Klein that the Primitive Island held the Ocean Songster formula on a Tyrant card left for him, and identified the Twilight Hermit Order as the group that ordered Qilingus to assassinate Duke Negan.
• Klein asked Neph to remove the True Creator's corruption from his Flame of Life glove, and Neph said he could pray to her because she might now be able to purify it.
• Neph explained that the Evernight Goddess had not planned Klein's suffering or his arrival, then teased him with the name Anti-sis-gonus before admitting she did not know the Mother of Heaven's real name.

Neph struggled to find a way to approach Bayam’s Resistance while Klein returned to Bayam to pursue bounties and develop a new identity. After Neph helped cleanse the Flame of Life glove, the True Creator summoned her, and she urged Klein to explore the Primitive Island and sell her mystical staff; their meal was interrupted when Klein spotted the wanted pirate Kircheis.

• Neph considered the authorities and the Resistance as possible ways to learn the acting method, but decided she could not safely approach the Resistance as an outsider.
• Klein left Backlund for Bayam, while Randall Valentinus obtained ticket records that led the Church of Storms to identify Gehrman Sparrow as Sherlock Moriarty.
• Neph cleansed the True Creator’s corruption from Klein’s Flame of Life glove, then received a summons from the True Creator and agreed to visit him later.
• Neph urged Klein to explore the Primitive Island and offered him her bone-white staff to sell, explaining its thirst for blood and its full-moon madness.
• Klein and Neph discussed food over a meal in Bayam before Klein recognized Kircheis the Slaughterer outside and leaped through the window after him.

Neph and Klein arranged to discuss buying Death's Key with Edwina, whose reply made Neph suspect the God of Knowledge and Wisdom wanted to meet her. After seeking the True Creator's guidance, Neph decided to meet Edwina and asked Klein to arrange it.

• Neph cleared ordinary people from the street so Klein could confront Kircheis, then reminded Klein to collect her after he finished pursuing the bounty.
• Klein explained that his 9,500-pound bounty payment was delayed and told Neph he planned to go to Backlund disguised as a wealthy businessman seeking a noble title.
• Neph asked Klein to contact Edwina about buying Death's Key, and Edwina replied that she wanted to meet Neph in person to discuss the transaction.
• Neph suspected Edwina's invitation was connected to the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, then asked the True Creator for guidance.
• The True Creator's whispers indicated that Wisdom's intentions were unclear and that negotiation was possible, so Neph decided to meet Edwina and asked Klein to arrange a place.

Alger weighed the risks of helping the World find an item on a primitive island and asked the Fool to arrange an expedition together. Neph met Danitz at Gragas, revealed her Demigod abilities and unusual pathway, and reached the Golden Dream with him.

• Alger inferred that Neph's revelation and the World's search might involve the Fool, then asked the Fool to tell the World he would share the island's coordinates if they explored it together.
• Neph traveled to Gragas to meet Edwina and waited for Danitz at the Sourness tavern.
• Neph revealed her Demigod presence, startling Danitz and frightening the pirates who had gathered in the tavern.
• Neph stole distance with Danitz to reach the harbor and explained that she was not connected to Jodson or the Marauder pathway.
• Neph showed Danitz her color-changing eyes and told him of a forgotten God, pathway, and land before taking him to the Golden Dream.

Neph visited Edwina aboard the Golden Dream, bought Death's Key, and told her that the key opened a gate in the Giant King's Court. After Neph left, Edwina questioned Danitz about their meeting and realized Neph's account of a possible future seemed to match what Danitz had experienced.

• Edwina welcomed Neph aboard the Golden Dream and showed her Death's Key, which Edwina believed had belonged to giants.
• Neph said Death's Key could open a gate in the Giant King's Court, paid Edwina five thousand pounds from her Collection Hall, and declined to stay aboard.
• Neph told Edwina that Danitz could pray to the Fool or contact Gehrman Sparrow if she needed to reach her, then left by walking across the freezing water.
• Edwina summoned Danitz to her quarters and used a dream to examine his meeting with Neph.
• Danitz told Edwina that Neph had called him Gehrman's head maid and said his pathway could let him become a woman.
• Edwina connected Neph's prediction about Danitz becoming a demigod and an oracle with Danitz's account and his possible choice of the Demoness pathway.

Edwina investigated Danitz’s account of Neph and realized her clues suggested a forgotten twenty-third pathway and the Forsaken Land of the Gods. Klein arranged for Edwina to join the Primitive Island expedition, which ended with Neph bringing Frank a Druid Beyonder characteristic aboard the Future.

• Edwina questioned Danitz in a dream about his encounters with Neph and recognized the significance of her references to a forgotten god, pathway, and land.
• Klein told Neph that Edwina wanted to approach her through the Fool, and Neph agreed that he could reveal she came from neither the Southern nor Northern Continent.
• Klein invited Edwina to join the Primitive Island exploration, and Mr. Hanged Man agreed to the plan.
• Neph gave Frank a Druid Beyonder characteristic she had bought for eight thousand pounds, and Cattleya agreed to raise the remaining five thousand pounds.
• Neph told Cattleya she planned to introduce a courageous Hunter to His Grace Ouroboros, then accepted the guest room aboard the Future.

Neph helped Frank complete eleven edible mushroom varieties suited to the Forsaken Land of the Gods, then sent samples and a letter to Klein. After borrowing Frank’s Beyonder abilities, she left the Future and set off toward the sea near the War of the Gods Ruins.

• Cattleya bought Frank his Beyonder characteristic, and he advanced before beginning mushroom research with Neph’s suggestions.
• Frank showed Neph his first edible mushrooms, and she tasted them before thinking of sending some to Klein.
• Frank developed eleven mushroom varieties that could provide meat, fish, flour, milk, and other foods, and Neph obtained memories of his Beyonder abilities.
• Neph grew another batch of mushrooms, sent them to Klein with a letter through Reinette Tinekerr, and departed toward the sea near the War of the Gods Ruins.
• Klein received eight thousand pounds from Cattleya, his commission from the White Bone Staff sale, and the bounty for Kircheis before reading Neph’s letter and receiving the mushrooms.