Chapter Summaries

Lorry confronted Danitz about a rumor claiming he and Edwina had been involved, then left Norga after arranging for Danitz to correct the story. In Backlund, Lorry arrived at the Posner Face Mask Factory and Leonard Mitchell received him at his home.

• Lorry questioned Danitz about the rumor and learned Danitz had spread it based on Lorry's long research sessions with Edwina and his unusual walk.
• Lorry explained that he and Edwina had been researching Teleportation charms and threatened to hypnotize Danitz if the rumor continued.
• Lorry told Danitz he was leaving Norga and promised semifinished charms if Danitz behaved well during his absence.
• On Monday morning, Lorry traveled to Backlund and arrived at the Posner Face Mask Factory.
• Leonard Mitchell was alerted to a visitor by an aged voice, opened his door, and recognized Tego Lorry as someone he had met before.

Leonard sold Tego the Dream Stealer formula for 5,000 pounds after Old Man agreed to the trade on the condition that Tego rescue Mobet first. Meanwhile, Lorry considered the formula’s advancement ritual and learned that Qiao planned to leave the factory to continue searching for victims in the Southern Continent, after receiving a troubling medical report.

• Tego visited Leonard to buy the Dream Stealer formula, and Old Man told Leonard to require proof that Tego’s plan to rescue Mobet was feasible.
• Tego proposed using a Marauder demigod to steal life for Mobet or a Marauder Angel to steal and graft someone’s fate onto him.
• Old Man agreed to sell the formula once Mobet was rescued, and Leonard gave Tego the formula for five thousand pounds.
• Lorry received the formula’s details through his Dawn Knight avatar and considered how to meet its ingredients and advancement ritual requirements.
• Qiao told Lorry he intended to leave his stable factory job and continue searching for victims in the Southern Continent, then showed him a medical report.

Lorry learned that Qiao had severe lung damage and planned to resign to search for the swindler who ruined his family. He urged Qiao to seek treatment and offered him work overseeing investments in the Southern Continent, leaving Qiao to consider the proposal as Lorry prepared to leave Backlund.

• Lorry read Qiao's examination report and learned that Qiao had at most six months to a year to live.
• Lorry recommended that Qiao visit the Harvest Church on Rose Street for treatment and warned him to hire protection for his search in the Southern Continent.
• Lorry learned where Qiao had posted a commission for bodyguards and shared the details with his Dawn Knight avatar.
• Lorry offered Qiao a position overseeing Southern Continent businesses, arguing that the work would fund his investigation and that the warm climate might help his lungs.
• Lorry urged Qiao not to believe in fate, toasted his safe journey, and reflected on his avatars and the upcoming Tarot Club gathering after Qiao left.

Lorry drafted a proposal for industries on the Southern Continent to help his subordinate and prepare for the Dream Stealer ritual. At the Tarot Club, Xio arranged to obtain materials for her Interrogator potion, while Cattleya offered Fors’s friend three payment options for the blood he had requested.

• Lorry wrote a preliminary proposal for industries on the Southern Continent.
• Audrey sent Susie out with Annie so she could prepare alone for the Tarot Club gathering.
• Audrey arrived at the gathering and observed the members’ moods before Mr. Fool opened proceedings.
• Xio asked the members about her requested materials, and Derrick offered Lightning Pattern Black Snake blood and tourmaline in exchange for a deduction from his debt.
• Fors arranged for Derrick’s materials to be passed to Xio, who looked forward to advancing to Sequence 7.
• Cattleya told Fors that she had prepared three possible payments for her friend and asked him to choose one.

Cattleya offered Fors three possible payments for her friend’s Mythical Creature blood, then explained what Mythical Creatures were and identified the blood as belonging to an Angel of the Tyrant pathway. Alger later announced that a fifth Pirate King had emerged after Jodson defeated Agalito.

• Cattleya offered Fors a primeval island’s coordinates, a method for making high-level charms, or a chance to trade with a High Sequence Beyonder as payment options.
• Cattleya explained that Beyonders became true Mythical Creatures at Sequence 2 and revealed that the blood came from an Angel of the Tyrant pathway.
• Audrey asked the members whether they had found several ingredients she needed, and Alger said he had heard major news after returning to land.
• Alger announced that Jodson, the third mate of the Golden Dream, had defeated Agalito, the King of Immortality, in the central waters of the Fog Sea.

At the Tarot Club, Alger used a rumor about Pirate King Jodson courting Vice Admiral Iceberg to test Fors and Xio, and Klein concluded that Jodson and Lorry were the same person. After the gathering, Xio rushed to Fors’s room to make sure she was safe, and Fors reassured her.

• Alger announced that Flower Bow Tie Jodson had become a Pirate King and that his Loen bounty had risen to 120,000 pounds.
• Audrey noticed that Alger, Klein, and Cattleya were watching Fors and Xio, while Klein remained convinced Jodson and Lorry were the same person.
• Alger repeated a rumor that Jodson had joined the Golden Dream to court Vice Admiral Iceberg, and Xio’s reaction confirmed Klein’s suspicion.
• After the Tarot Club gathering, Xio hurried to Fors’s room and broke open the door when Fors did not answer.
• Fors reassured Xio that she was fine and said she trusted the Hanged Man’s claim that the story was only a rumor.

Fors told Xio that a mystical catastrophe at the Mountain Estate had left her and the man she loved as the only survivors, and explained that he had stayed by her side until they were rescued. Later, Xio prepared materials for a ritual and asked where Albert's Interrogator characteristic was.

• Xio questioned Fors about rumors that the man she loved had been dishonest and kept lovers.
• Fors admitted that she had lied about what happened on the way to the salon and recounted how she and the man survived a sealed-off Mountain Estate where a Spirit World Creature's puppets hunted them.
• Fors told Xio that his refusal to abandon her had made her fall in love with him, and Xio teased her about getting her wish.
• Fors asked Xio to arrange repairs to the door while she performed a ritual to Mr. Fool, leaving Klein puzzled when the expected request did not arrive.
• At dusk, Xio saw Fors cuddling with the man on the sofa, then divided ritual materials into two portions and asked where Albert's Interrogator characteristic was.

Lorry gave Xio the Interrogator characteristic, and she prepared the potion while overhearing his conversation with Fors. After Fors divined that the potion was safe, Albert volunteered to drink it first, and Fors used a gemstone bracelet to send blue and green light toward him.

• Lorry summoned the Interrogator Beyonder characteristic and placed it on the table for Xio.
• Xio mixed the potion and listened as Lorry told Fors that his feats and bounty had drawn attention.
• Xio finished the potion, and Albert volunteered to drink it first so Xio could observe the result.
• Fors divined that the potion was safe, and Albert drank it.
• Fors put on a gemstone bracelet and channeled its blue and green light toward Albert.

Albert successfully advanced to Interrogator with Fors’s help, revealing new abilities and the limits of his animal form. Xio prepared to advance next, while Lorry stepped out with Albert and promised to bring Fors and Xio drinks.

• Fors used the Beast Tamer Bracelet to ease Albert’s painful potion transformation, and Lorry explained that it helped Beyonder animals withstand potions.
• Lorry reassured Xio about advancing to Mid-Sequence and offered Fors’s help with a Psychiatrist’s Soothing.
• Albert completed his advancement to Interrogator and described his Spirit Piercing and Whip of Affliction abilities, along with two abilities he could not use because he had no hands.
• Fors asked Xio whether she was ready to begin her advancement, and Xio agreed before turning to concoct her potion.
• Lorry gave Fors the White Bone Ring and left to avoid suspicion, agreeing to fetch drinks for Fors and Xio; Albert followed him.

Lorry negotiated with Fors over payment for a drop of blood, then returned to Norga Island and prepared to explore while Danitz slept. The innkeeper warned him that the navy was searching for a culprit and asked whether he and Danitz were involved in the previous night’s incident.

• Xio joked about running away with Albert, and Lorry learned that Xio had already attended the Tarot Club gathering.
• Fors explained Hermit's proposed payments for the drop of blood, and Lorry asked her to demand the method for making high-level charms and an opportunity to trade.
• Fors prayed to Hermit, who agreed to the counteroffer, though the transaction would take one to two weeks.
• Lorry returned to the inn on Norga Island, found Danitz asleep and drunk, and went downstairs after deciding not to disturb him.
• The innkeeper warned Lorry that navy men were hunting for the culprit behind a bar incident, then asked if Lorry and Danitz were involved.

Lorry questioned the innkeeper Jodson about Norga’s Mountain God and the legendary Ghost Ship. He learned that the ship had appeared twice in recent history, most recently six years earlier, and left by giving Jodson the name Jodson.

• Jodson guessed that Lorry and Danitz had come to Norga seeking a treasure and named Mountain God Flegrea and the Ghost Ship as possibilities.
• Jodson explained that Flegrea’s disappearance and the natives’ resistance suggested the navy’s claim that the Mountain God was dead might be false.
• Jodson told Lorry that the Ghost Ship had caused people to vanish and had appeared twice after the navy arrived, including once six years earlier.
• Lorry put away his money, deactivated Mind Reading, and introduced himself to Jodson as Jodson.

Lorry realized that Yamaha was connected to the ghost ship, then used gathered materials to make and consume a Marauder potion and prepare the Parasite ring. The innkeeper discovered from the newspaper that Lorry was Jodson, a newly named Pirate King, and planned to search more widely for Yamaha.

• The innkeeper told Lorry that Yamaha had gone extinct around the time the ghost ship last appeared, leading Lorry to conclude that the insects were connected to the ship.
• Lorry asked the innkeeper to look for Yamaha and returned to his room to brew potions from materials gathered by the Tarot Club members.
• Lorry dropped his Parasite ring into the Marauder potion, then transferred it into another liquid and sensed twelve transparent insects inside it.
• The innkeeper read that Jodson had defeated Agalito and received a bounty of 120,000 pounds, then realized that the polite young man who had asked about Yamaha was a Pirate King.
• The innkeeper decided to contact more old friends to look for Yamaha on nearby islands.

Lorry contacted Edwina about the ghost ship and Yamaha, then set out with Danitz to question local information brokers on Norgar Island. In Backlund, Qiao visited Harvest Church, where Father Utravsky and Father White offered him medicine and advice about his illness.

• Lorry told Edwina what he had learned, and she arranged for Orpheus and the others to search for Yamaha while warning Lorry about rival factions near Norgar Island.
• The next morning, Danitz noticed marines searching Norgar Island, while the innkeeper privately connected Lorry's visit with Black Scorpion's death.
• Lorry and Danitz finished breakfast, disguised themselves, and prepared to visit local information brokers for leads on the ghost ship or Yamaha.
• Qiao attended a morning sermon at Harvest Church and explained to Father Utravsky that he had come seeking medicine.
• Father Utravsky introduced Qiao to Father White, who gave him medicine and advised him to leave damp Backlund because his condition might otherwise leave him less than a year to live.

Qiao received a potion from Emlyn that relieved his breathing, then considered hiring a Beyonder named Tego as a bodyguard for his trip to the Southern Continent. Meanwhile, Lorry learned that Orpheus’s group had been attacked and was still being pursued.

• Qiao drank Emlyn’s potion, found that he could breathe easily again, and donated one hundred pounds to the Church of the Mother Goddess.
• Bishop Utravsky said the donation would help them treat more patients, leaving Emlyn to handle the extra potion-making work.
• Qiao met an intermediary in the East Borough, who offered him a chance to hire the Beyonder Tego alongside fewer ordinary bodyguards.
• Qiao hesitated over the fifty-pound supernatural contract and promised to decide about Tego and the other bodyguards within two days.
• At an inn on Norgar Island, Lorry sensed a message from Vice Admiral Iceberg and learned that Orpheus’s group had come under attack and was still being pursued.

Lorry learned that Orpheus and his team had been attacked on Tarakha Island, so he and Danitz teleported to rescue them. The injured party fled through the jungle as pursuers caught up and launched a surprise attack.

• Lorry told Danitz that Orpheus and his companions had been attacked, and Danitz hurried to prepare for the rescue.
• Lorry used a Teleportation silver medal to take Danitz to Tarakha Island.
• Orpheus led his injured companions through the jungle while they waited for rescue and argued about the Beast Tamer’s past and the Folk of Rage’s guilt.
• More than a dozen javelins flew at the fleeing team, and Orpheus used Holy Light to reveal their pursuers.
• Orpheus spotted an abnormal shadow and tried to warn the others, but an attacker used Distortion to redirect the javelins toward them.

Ms. Beast Tamer and her companions faced a deadly ambush until the Folk of Rage sacrificed himself to save her, and Orpheus and the Pugilist fought off their attackers. Lorry and Danitz arrived as reinforcements, drove the remaining enemies away, and Lorry turned to treat the wounded.

• As the Folk of Rage shielded Ms. Beast Tamer, javelins pierced him, and he told her he no longer owed her anything before collapsing.
• Orpheus burned two attackers with Notarized Fire of Light while the Pugilist threw javelins back at their enemies.
• Danitz and Lorry emerged from the Spirit World, and the Pugilist warned them that a hidden Sequence 5 enemy was redirecting attacks.
• Lorry used Deep-Level Parasitism to infiltrate the concealed Mentor of Disorder and killed three attackers with Wind Blades.
• A familiar voice ordered the remaining enemies to retreat, and Danitz tried to pursue them before Lorry stopped him.
• Lorry said saving lives came first and went to help the injured man and woman.

Lorry used a Beyonder ability to save Griffin after the group was ambushed underground. Orpheus explained that Mia had discovered strange insects beneath the earth, and the group had been attacked after trying to contact the captain about them.

• The Beast Tamer struggled to reach Griffin, but Danitz restrained her until Lorry arrived.
• Lorry transferred Griffin’s wounds using the Magician Beyonder Characteristic, and Griffin recovered enough to stand.
• Mia treated Griffin’s injured arm while he and Danitz discussed her offer to spend her savings to save him.
• Orpheus told Lorry that Mia had found strange underground insects they could not control or communicate with, and that the group was attacked after performing a ritual to contact the captain.
• Orpheus handed Lorry a glass jar containing one of the strange insects.

Lorry identified the captured worms as Yamaha and learned that the Shadow of Order was searching for the Ghost Ship of the Solomon Empire. As he analyzed the clues at camp, a Yamaha bit Danitz and was tossed to him.

• Lorry recognized the worms as Yamaha and suspected the strangers were pursuing the Ghost Ship.
• Gage Lorry told his group that an unknown faction had found the Yamaha and ordered them to request reinforcements from Mumulik.
• Gage Lorry privately hoped his warning would draw Mumulik, a core member of the Shadow of Order, to Tarakha Island.
• Lorry analyzed the Ghost Ship, Duke Orbun, and Yamaha clues but concluded he lacked the crucial information needed to find the ship.
• Danitz arrived to complain about Griffin's painful dressing, then found a Yamaha biting his leg and tossed it to Lorry.

Lorry examined Yamaha and suspected its blood sac held a secret connected to the Ghost Ship, while the Shadow of Order prepared to join the search. In Backlund, Qiao left the factory to travel to the Southern Continent with three employees and introduced them to their protectors.

• Lorry used his Mystery Pryer abilities to inspect Yamaha, then had Danitz open its shell and expose its blood sac.
• Lorry sensed Yamaha's secret was in its blood sac, killed it, and stored the creature and three Beyonder Characteristics in another Dimension.
• Lorry considered the Shadow of Order's strength but decided he might still reach the Ghost Ship first and gain something extra.
• Gage Lorry received Mumulik's order to wait for the group to arrive and agreed to stay in contact.
• Qiao stepped down from his position at the Posner Face Mask Factory and set off for the Southern Continent with three employees.
• Qiao introduced the travelers to three protectors waiting in their carriage, including Mr. Tego.

Lorry used the Book of Dimensions to arrange for Qiao’s party to reach the Southern Continent safely while delaying their investigation until he could join them. He discovered that natural Incantations on a Yamaha’s second blood sac doubled a talisman’s Spirituality-preserving lifespan, and began wondering about their origin.

• Lorry wrote in the Book of Dimensions that Qiao’s party would reach the Southern Continent safely but make slow progress investigating the swindler until he advanced to Fire Thief.
• Lorry reviewed the Book’s account of Pali Beria’s hunt for Rose School members and her planned advancement to Desire Apostle.
• Lorry identified the Yamaha’s second blood sac as a storage organ whose folds contained naturally formed Incantations.
• Lorry’s Dream Divination showed that a talisman engraved with the Incantations lasted three years, compared with a year and a half without them.
• Lorry told Sebastian about the Incantations’ effect and wondered whether they were connected to a legendary duke’s experiments or secrets.