Chapter Summaries

Klein learned that Jodson had killed everyone aboard the Blackthorn and raised his bounty, then devised a plan involving Red-Haired Helene and Vice Admiral of Ailment Tracy. Edwina contacted Lorry to tell him his leave was over and ask where he was.

• Klein asked Danitz about Jodson's attack, and Danitz described how Jodson killed Bloodblade Savi and the other pirates aboard the Blackthorn.
• Danitz contacted Vice Admiral Iceberg through a ritual, but Klein answered through him and asked for details about Jodson's exploits.
• Klein asked about Red-Haired Helene, and Danitz reported that she was a sea merchant who had reportedly been captured by Ailment Maiden-Tracy.
• Klein thought of disguising himself as Red-Haired Helene, boarding the Black Death, and killing Vice Admiral of Ailment Tracy.
• Edwina contacted Lorry and told him his leave had ended, asking where he was so the Golden Dream could pick him up.

Vice Admiral Iceberg arranged for Lorry to join the Golden Dream’s expedition but demanded a notarized document after he refused to return immediately. After Lorry settled most of his debt, he and Iceberg left their next treasure hunt undecided between the Ghost Empire and Solomon’s Legacy.

• Vice Admiral Iceberg realized Lorry had killed a Sequence 5 Wraith and wiped out the Blackthorn’s crew, then invited him to the Golden Dream for an expedition to hunt Admiral of Blood.
• Lorry accepted Iceberg’s suggestion but said he could not return right away, so she ordered him to come sign a notarized document.
• Klein returned Above the Gray Fog, punished a fraud who had used his name, and responded to a new crimson star as a black-haired woman chose the Hermit card.
• Sebastian accused Lorry of charming women, and Lorry defended the gift he had given Iceberg before tossing the ring into another dimension to analyze Kalvetua’s blood.
• Lorry paid off three thousand pounds of debt to Iceberg, and they agreed to choose between exploring the Ghost Empire or Solomon’s Legacy based on divination.

Albert handled the household food errands while Xio was away, and Lorry discussed Arbiter potion formulas with Sebastian before helping Fors think through acting as a Trickmaster. The chapter ended with Lorry explaining that an audience’s size and quality affected the difficulty and rewards of a magic performance.

• Fors sent Albert to buy Desi Pies and drinks, and Albert sensed that his master had returned as he came home.
• Lorry arrived, and Fors praised Albert’s helpfulness while Albert tactfully played along with her explanation.
• Albert said he was digesting his Sheriff potion faster than Xio, and Fors defended Xio’s need to work outside their jurisdiction.
• Lorry asked Sebastian about later Arbiter potion formulas, but Sebastian explained that Vera could not reveal them after undergoing Secrecy.
• Fors admitted she had not yet worked out how to act as a Trickmaster, so Lorry advised her to consider her audience and the performance’s difficulty.

Lorry advised Fors on digesting her Trickmaster potion and offered her a Sealed Artifact as a gift, while Fors remained suspicious of his sincerity. At the Tarot Club, Fors introduced the Demoness's Makeup Mirror for appraisal after completing a deal with Alger.

• Lorry explained that Fors could improve her performances by attracting large audiences, diverting their attention, and preparing thoroughly.
• Fors decided to seek a part-time job at a circus, and Lorry agreed that it could help her digest her potion within a month or two.
• Lorry offered Fors the Demoness's Makeup Mirror as a gift for her advancement, but Fors questioned whether he was being sincere.
• Cattleya joined the Tarot Club as the Hermit, and Audrey welcomed her.
• Alger bought a Sanguine Baron characteristic from Emlyn and then agreed to buy from Fors for 2,300 pounds.
• Fors asked the Tarot Club to appraise the Demoness's Makeup Mirror and began describing its abilities.

Fors introduced a Sealed Artifact with enhanced charm, Mirror Substitution, and Black Flame, sparking interest among the Tarot Club members. Although Audrey offered ten thousand pounds, Fors refused to sell it.

• Fors described her Sealed Artifact, and Audrey, Emlyn, Alger, and Cattleya all considered buying it for different reasons.
• Audrey, Emlyn, and Alger asked whether the Artifact was for sale, while Cattleya prepared to compete for it.
• Fors said the Artifact was not for sale, and Alger estimated its value at five to seven thousand pounds.
• Audrey offered up to ten thousand pounds, but Fors firmly refused again.

At the Tarot Club, Fors explained that her Sealed Artifact had been a gift from a friend, prompting the members to reflect on the gifts and help they had received. After the conversation derailed, Fors offered compensation for taking up the meeting’s time and introduced the artifact for sale.

• Justice Audrey asked Fors why she treasured the Sealed Artifact, and Fors said it had been a gift from a friend.
• Fors revealed that her teacher had already given her one main ingredient for Sequence 7 and still owed her the other.
• The Tarot Club members became distracted by Fors’s good fortune until the Fool Klein reminded them to continue the meeting.
• Fors offered ten pages of Roselle’s Diary to Mr. Fool as compensation, and he accepted.
• Fors offered lower prices in upcoming trades and presented a pair of gold-rimmed glasses as the first Sealed Artifact she planned to sell.

Fors offered the Eye of Wisdom and Nightmare Dagger for sale at the Tarot Club, while Audrey bought the Eye of Wisdom and Alger bought the dagger. Fors then mentioned that she had a batch of Beyonder Characteristics to sell, leaving Audrey surprised by the scale of her offer.

• Fors described the Eye of Wisdom, and Audrey agreed to buy it for one thousand pounds while promising to repay her earlier debt.
• Audrey asked the members to help find Hypnotist Beyonder Characteristics, and several promised to search.
• Fors offered the Nightmare Dagger for one thousand seven hundred pounds, and Alger bargained the price down to one thousand five hundred pounds.
• Derrick offered to send Fors Blood-Spotted Black Mosquito and Candle-Eating Spirit cores through Mr. Fool.
• Fors announced that she had a batch of Beyonder Characteristics to sell, and Audrey began asking whether one was a Hypnotist characteristic before realizing Fors had said a batch.

At the Tarot Club, Fors offered a batch of Beyonder Characteristics for sale, prompting the members to consider which ones they needed. Alger bought a Provoker characteristic, while Cattleya showed interest in the Warrior pathway offerings.

• The Fool controlled the World to ask which pathways Fors’s Beyonder Characteristics represented.
• Fors offered a Harvest Priest characteristic, but no one wanted to buy it; Alger offered to help turn it into a Sealed Artifact.
• Fors offered Hunter and Provoker characteristics, and Alger bought the Provoker for eight hundred pounds.
• Fors listed Warrior pathway characteristics from Sequence 9 through Sequence 6, including a Dawn Knight, and Cattleya asked whether she could buy them all at a discount.
• The Fool recognized Fors’s eager bulk-sale pitch as resembling vendors on the snack street from before he transmigrated.

At the Tarot Club, Fors offered several Beyonder Characteristics for sale, and Cattleya bought most of them after negotiating a discount. Klein connected Fors’s stock to Flower Bow Tie Jodson’s recent killings and suspected her friend shared an organization with the pirate, while the gathering ended with the World asking whether Fors had higher-Sequence Characteristics.

• Cattleya asked Fors the price for her Beyonder Characteristics, and Fors offered a discount for buying them together.
• Klein connected Fors’s Warrior-pathway and Harvest Priest Characteristics to Flower Bow Tie Jodson’s recent killings and suspected Fors’s Marauder-pathway friend belonged to the same organization as Jodson.
• Cattleya bought all but one Weapon Master characteristic for six thousand pounds, and Fors agreed to ask Mr. Fool to arrange the transfer after the gathering.
• Fors offered the remaining Weapon Master characteristic to the other members, but Alger and the World declined to buy it.
• The World asked Fors whether she had Beyonder Characteristics from higher Sequences.

At the Tarot Club, Fors offered to obtain Beyonder characteristics for members through her friend, drawing requests from the World, Justice, and the Hanged Man. She offered Alger an Ocean Songster characteristic in exchange for arranging a purchase of an Artisan's blood, and Derrick asked why she was collecting it.

• Fors asked the World which pathway he needed, and he asked how long it would take to obtain a Wraith characteristic for his companion.
• Fors said her friend could set off for a Wraith characteristic after receiving a deposit, and the World agreed to ask his companion what he wanted.
• Justice requested two Hypnotist characteristics, and Fors agreed to obtain them.
• Alger asked whether Fors had an Ocean Songster characteristic, and she offered the one she had in exchange for a deposit or an arrangement to buy at least eight hundred milliliters of an Artisan's blood.
• Alger chose to try arranging the blood purchase, and Fors offered the same payment option to the other members.
• Derrick asked Fors whether she was collecting blood for a Vampire friend or to address the negative effects of a similar item.

At the Tarot Club gathering, Fors sold or reserved several Beyonder characteristics, while Klein arranged to buy a Six-Winged Gargoyle’s eyeballs for his advancement. Alger then raised the disappearance of archaeologist Laticia and her companions, linking the affair to the Moses Ascetic Order and Sea God Kalvetua.

• Fors agreed to sell the Weapon Master characteristic to Derrick on credit.
• Cattleya asked Fors to reserve all three Scroll Professor characteristics for ten thousand pounds, which she planned to raise within three days.
• Klein had the World seek a Six-Winged Gargoyle’s eyeballs, and Cattleya agreed to try to obtain them for 300 pounds.
• Alger reported that the Church of Storms found corpses but no sign of Kalvetua at the sea god’s hiding place on Symeem Island, and that the Moses Ascetic Order was rumored to have orchestrated the events.

At the Tarot Club, Klein used the Hanged Man and Hermit’s assumptions about the Sea God’s fall to make the members believe he had joined forces with another ancient god, then redirected the meeting to Jodson’s attack on the Blackthorn. The report prompted the others to suspect Fors was connected to the killing, though she knew nothing about it.

• Cattleya recognized the connection between Kalvetua, the Moses Ascetic Order, and the Fool, drawing the attention of Alger and the other Tarot Club members.
• Klein said Kalvetua had consumed a characteristic left by an ancient god seeking revival, and the members mistakenly concluded that the Fool had defeated Kalvetua and the ancient god.
• Klein called the ancient being an old friend and the Sea God Scepter a thank-you gift, reinforcing Alger’s belief that two ancient gods had collaborated.
• Alger praised the Fool, and Klein told the members to resume their discussion after saying the world belonged to young people.
• The World reported that Jodson had killed everyone aboard the Blackthorn, including Bloodblade Savi, a Sequence 6 Dawn Knight and first mate on Vice Admiral Dusk’s flagship.
• The members looked toward Fors, but she was confused and denied knowing anything about Flower Bow Tie Jodson.

At the Tarot Club, Klein confirmed that Fors and her friend had no connection to Jodson, while Fors sold several Beyonder characteristics to Alger and Cattleya. In the real world, Lorry reviewed the success of the Face Mask Factory and ordered it to develop separate product lines for commoners and the middle and upper classes.

• Klein divined repeatedly and concluded that Fors and her friend were not connected to Flower Bow Tie Jodson.
• Lorry heard that the factory’s new masks for women had received strong feedback, especially from middle- and upper-class customers.
• After Cattleya answered the World’s questions about Red-Haired Helene, Fors offered Sailor-pathway, Assassin, and Archaeologist Beyonder characteristics for sale.
• Alger bought the Sailor, Folk of Rage, and Seafarer characteristics for 2,200 pounds, and Cattleya bought the remaining two for 1,000 pounds.
• Lorry ordered the factory to make cheaper, varied designs for commoners and more fashionable, accessory-like masks for middle- and upper-class customers.

Lorry discussed factory publicity, charitable mask distribution, and investment proposals with Qiao, then considered whether to accept a title offered by the Church of the Evernight Goddess. After learning his identity documents were genuine, he met Saint Anthony, who explained the land requirement for becoming a hereditary lord.

• Lorry instructed Qiao to arrange magazine sponsorship and use factory profits to provide free masks to poor families with the Church of the Evernight Goddess.
• Qiao told Lorry that wealthy investors, including Baron Syndras and Earl Hall, wanted shares in the factory, and Lorry said he would handle their proposals himself.
• Qiao informed Lorry that the Church had repeatedly invited him to discuss receiving a title.
• Sebastian told Lorry that Vera's identity documents were genuine and that a background check would verify them.
• Lorry went to Saint Samuel Cathedral and followed Saint Anthony to a prayer room.
• Saint Anthony told Lorry that a hereditary lord needed at least two hundred thousand ares of land and asked him to return once he met the requirement.

Lorry accepted the Church’s proposal to donate at least seventy thousand pounds in exchange for land and eligibility for ennoblement, while Fors eagerly awaited someone who arrived with a bank check and Beyonder Characteristics. The chapter ended as Fors’s smile froze when she saw who had come through the door.

• Lorry told Archbishop Saint Anthony that he would rather spend his savings on other priorities than buy land for a title.
• Archbishop Saint Anthony proposed that Lorry donate at least seventy thousand pounds to a Church foundation in exchange for two hundred thousand ares of land.
• Lorry agreed to raise the money within a week and asked whether shares in the Posner Face Mask Factory could serve as collateral.
• Fors, exhausted after conducting Sacrifice and Bestowal Rituals, hurried to the living room after hearing someone arrive.
• Fors saw a figure enter carrying a 15,500-pound bank check and Sequence 9 Beyonder Characteristics, and her smile froze.

Xio came home early and tried to hide her evening meeting from Fors, but Albert exposed her, and Fors caught them plotting together. Lorry returned to find Xio and Albert being punished, while Fors let them come in to eat.

• Xio teased Fors for pretending she had bought food in anticipation of her return, then privately admitted she had come home before her meeting with the Golden Mask Man.
• Xio persuaded Albert to help conceal her plans by promising to arrange a meeting with Susie.
• Fors revealed she had overheard Xio and Albert, and Xio confessed while blaming Albert for helping her.
• Xio offered to handle the housework and errands for a month, and Fors sent her and Albert to the balcony as punishment.
• Lorry arrived, heard Fors explain what had happened, and suggested letting Xio and Albert eat before he beat them; Fors called them inside.

Lorry worried about paying seventy thousand pounds for land, and Fors offered him checks from her own savings while urging him not to sell the mirror he had given her. The chapter ended with Fors resting her head on Lorry’s thigh as he tried to hide his flustered reaction.

• After dinner, Xio left to deliver commission results, and Albert went to sleep while Fors asked Lorry what was troubling him.
• Lorry explained that he had to spend seventy thousand pounds on land, and Fors said the price was a bargain but worried about the expense.
• Fors gave Lorry two bank checks, including three thousand pounds from her savings, and offered to raise more money if needed.
• Fors admitted she had asked about the mirror’s price because she wanted to share her excitement over the gift, then offered to sell it if necessary.
• Lorry told Fors to keep the mirror and return the check for her expenses, but she insisted he hold the money for her.
• Fors lay down with her head on Lorry’s thigh, teased him about his stiff posture, and said the position was more comfortable than a cushion.

Lorry discussed helping Fors advance through the Apprentice pathway, but dodged her hopes for a more personal conversation. Later, he asked Xio to collect nail clippings from many different people.

• Lorry outlined plans to help Fors digest her Trickmaster potion and prepare for future sequences, leaving Fors disappointed that he avoided what she wanted to hear.
• Fors teased Lorry, and he covered her eyes before talking about finding a winemaker for their future winery.
• Xio returned home and found Fors asleep against Lorry on the sofa, leaving her stunned and wondering whether she could still stay the night.
• Lorry offered Xio tins of Queen Black Tea and asked her to collect nail clippings from different people.

Lorry needed many nail fragments to brew Marauder potions, so he hired Xio to gather them discreetly. As Xio suggested hunting a notorious pirate for money, Lorry revealed that he was Flower Bow Tie.

• Lorry explained that he had the other potion ingredients but needed nail fragments from at least forty people to brew his planned Marauder potions.
• Xio initially refused the commission because gathering so many nails could attract attention, but accepted after Lorry offered three hundred pounds.
• Lorry told Xio and Fors that he had a large expense coming up and would soon leave Backlund for the sea, while Fors would help manage his manor.
• Xio suggested that Lorry earn money by hunting Flower Bow Tie, whose bounty was fifteen thousand pounds, and Fors warned him that the pirate was dangerous.
• Xio mentioned the Crazy Adventurer and said he might be working with Flower Bow Tie, prompting Lorry to reveal that he was Flower Bow Tie.

Lorry revealed to Xio and Fors that he had taken the identity of Flower Bow Tie Jodson and explained how he had joined the Golden Dream and fought pirates. The next morning, Xio discovered Fors writing a manuscript titled “A few little-known facts about Vice Admiral Iceberg.”

• Lorry identified Flower Bow Tie as Jodson, a Sequence 6 Fire Thief serving aboard Vice Admiral Iceberg Edwina’s Golden Dream, then used a ring to reveal that he had taken Jodson’s appearance.
• Lorry explained to Xio and Fors how he had assumed Jodson’s identity for a treasure hunt and admitted that he had killed a ship’s crew by sneaking aboard and attacking them one by one.
• Xio questioned Lorry about his strength and Sealed Artifacts, while Fors took away his cold tea and went to make more.
• Xio spent time with Albert, who reminded her that maintaining order in her jurisdiction would help digest her Sheriff potion.
• The next morning, Xio found Fors working on a manuscript titled “A few little-known facts about Vice Admiral Iceberg.”